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Copyright N° _ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



CA HP ENTER' S INDUSTRIAL READERS 



F ( ) I) S 



OR 



HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



BY 

FRANK G. CARPENTER 
V 



NEW YORK • CINCINNATI • CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



Carpenter's Geographical Readers 


NORTH AMERICA .... 


60 cents 


SOUTH AMERICA .... 


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EUROPE 


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ASIA 


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AUSTRALIA, OUR COLONIES, AND 




OTHER ISLANDS OF THE SEA . 


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AFRICA 


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These Readers are not dry compilations from other 


books, but 


comprise vivid descriptions of the author's personal observations. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Frank G. Carpenter. 






Carp. Foods. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cooles Received 

MAY 28 I90r 

a Copyright Ertry 
CLASS /\ XXc, No ' 
COFY B. 



PREFACE 

This book on Foods is the first of a series upon the great 
industries of the world. Its purpose is to give the children 
a knowledge of the production and preparation of foods, 
and to show how civilization and commerce grew from 
man's need of foods and the exchange of foods between 
the different nations of the earth. 

The author takes the children on personally conducted 
tours to the great food centers of the world, to the markets 
of exchange, to the factories, the farms, the forests, and 
the seas. 

Together they visit the great wheat fields of our own 
and other lands. They follow the grain to the mills and 
from the mills to the markets. They go through the corn 
belt of the United States and learn the size and value of 
our corn crop. They visit the rice countries of the world 
and learn how this grain, which forms the bread of a large 
part of the human race, is grown and prepared for the 
market. 

They go to a western cattle ranch and aid the cowboys 
in a "round up." They follow the cattle to a great pack- 
ing center, where they inspect the stock yards and observe 
the killing and shipping. They also learn how pork is 
packed for shipment to all parts of the world. They live 
for a time with the shepherds in Australia and New Zea- 
land, and visit the factories to observe the handling and 
freezing of mutton. 

Visits are paid to dairy countries, and the manufacture 
of butter and cheese is explained. The children go to the 
poultry yards of the world and are shown how chickens, 

3 



4 PREFACE 

ducks, geese, and turkeys are reared, and what an impor- 
tant part of our national income our egg industry produces. 

They are taken with the fishermen of different lands to 
the great fishing grounds to observe how salmon and other 
finny creatures are caught and prepared for the markets. 

Several interesting trips are taken to the vegetable 
gardens of the world, and the children learn that many 
vegetables have histories and have long held important 
places in furnishing food for man. 

Journeys are made to orchards and vineyards when 
apples, peaches, berries, oranges, pineapples, bananas, and 
grapes are ripe, and the luscious fruit is picked and eaten 
fresh from the trees and vines. Also tours are made to 
the lands of the olive, date, and fig, and the children taste 
the many other curious fruits of tropical lands. 

With the author they take passage on a steamer at New 
York and sail to the warm coffee lands of Brazil. Here 
they watch the picking of the coffee beans and the differ- 
ent processes used in the preparation of the coffee of com- 
merce. They then make a flying trip to Japan to see how 
tea is picked, dried, and boxed for shipment. 

A peep is next taken into the world's big sugar bowl, 
and the children learn how the chief commercial sugars 
are made from beets or sugar cane. 

This Food Reader is, to a large extent, the result of the 
personal observations of the author. Many of the descrip- 
tions were written on the ground, and great care has been 
taken to make every part of it as accurate and up to date 
as possible. 



CONTENTS 



i. Introduction . 

2_The Bread of the World — Wheat 
3. How our Wheat is Marketed 
4— The Wheat of Other Lands . 



Flour ...... 

The World's Great Corn Patch . 
Rice ...... 

Other Grains which Feed Millions 
On a Western Cattle Ranch . 
A Visit to a Great Packing Center 
Hogs and Pork Packing 

Mutton 

Milk, Butter, and Cheese 

14. Dairying in Other Lands 

15. Poultry — Chickens, Ducks, Geese, and 

Wild Animals used as Food . 

Rabbits, Squirrels, and Game Birds 

Fish in General .... 

Salmon ..... 

20. Oysters ..... 

21. Lobsters, Shrimps, Crabs, and Other SI 

22. Sea Food of Other Lands 

23. Turtles. Frogs, Snails, and Lizards 

24. Vegetables 

25. Potatoes ..... 

26. Important Vegetables used for Food 

27. In the Gardens of Other Lands 

28. Odd Foods from Trees and Vines 

5 



9- 

10. 
1 1. 
12. 
13- 



16. 

17- 
18. 
19. 



Turkeys 



;llfis 



CONTENTS 



29. General View of our Fruit Industry 

30. Apples 

31. Peaches .... 

32. Apricots, Pears. Quinces, Cherries, 

33. Grapes 

34. Berries 

35. Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Pomelos 

36. Pineapples and Bananas 

37. Olives and Vegetable Oils 

38. Dates and Figs 

39. Some Other Tropical Fruits . 

40. Nuts 

41. Coffee . v . 

42. Tea 

43. Cacao — Chocolate and Cocoa 

44. Tobacco .... 

45. Where the Sugar Cane Grows 

46. Beet Sugar, Maple Sugar, and Honey 

47. Salt 

48. Spices and Other Flavoring Plants 



and Plums 



Citron, etc. 



PACE 
225 
229 
237 
243 
248 

255 
259 
267 
274 
28l 
287 
29O 

297 
308 

3*7 

323 
328 

338 
345 
352 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD 
IS FED 

i. INTRODUCTION 

WE start to-day upon a series of travels which will take 
us all over the earth. Our object is to learn about 
the foods of the world and how they are used by man. In 
our journeys we shall visit the farms of many nations and 
see how the crops are raised. We shall go into the orchards 
and pick apples, oranges, and other fruits fresh from the 
trees. We shall penetrate the wilds to hunt the game 
which man eats ; and we shall even look into the seas 
and study the fish, oysters, and other animals which live 
under the water. 

As we go on with our travels, we shall see ships and cars 
carrying food from place to place ; and, in the markets, 
we shall watch the exchanges of one thing for another. 
This will show us the commerce of the world as it affects 
our eating; while the work on the farms and in the 
orchards and the factories will show us the great indus- 
tries which have grown up in raising food and preparing 
it for use. Indeed, all our journeys are to be along the 
lines of industry and commerce. They will deal with the 
world at work and the world of trade. 

We all know that man is an animal, and, whenever we 
miss our meals, we realize that he is a hungry animal. Men 

7 



8 FOODS : OK HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

seldom work except to satisfy their wants ; and their wants 
along food lines are such that they devote the greater part 
of their lives to supplying them. Indeed, the story of the 
growth of the easier ways of satisfying these wants forms a 
large part of the history of civilization. Ages ago men ate 
their food raw. If they killed a wild animal, they tore it to 
pieces and devoured it. Some savage tribes do this to-day. 
The Australian aborigines, for instance, know but little 
about cooking, and a part of their food is worms, which 
they dig from the trees and eat raw. The Abyssinians 
eat raw meat, and there are other Africans who live 
largely upon roots, wild vegetables, and fruit. Some of 
these people are not much better than the savages of 
the distant past. 

It was some time before men learned that food is better 
when cooked. How they found out we do not know. 
It may have been like the discovery of roast pig by Bo-bo, 
the Chinese boy, as told by Charles Lamb. Bo-bo was the 
son of the swineherd, Ho-ti, and, as you may remember, he 
accidentally set fire to his father's house, in which some little 
pigs were kept. The house burned to the ground, and 
the pigs were roasted. Bo-bo felt one of the sizzling car- 
casses to see if it might not still have life ; and, as it burned 
his fingers, he thrust them into his mouth. His pain turned 
to delight as he got his first taste of the juicy cracklings 
which adhered to them. He told Ho-ti, and, as the story 
goes, the two burned down house after house to get more 
roast pig. They were arrested, and at their trial some of 
the roast was given to the judge. A few days later the 
judge, having bought some little pigs of a neighbor, burned 
his own house. Others did likewise, until a sage discovered 



INTRODUCTION 9 

that a pig could be roasted on an ordinary fire, and after 
this, roasting became common throughout the nation. 

However true this story may be, we know that roasting 
was the first stage of food preparation, for it is common 
among all savage tribes. The next discovery was proba- 
bly baking. Holes were made in the ground and lined 
with stones. Fire was then built, and when the stones 
were red-hot, the food, wrapped in leaves or skins, was 
there covered up to be cooked. Such bake ovens are 
common to-day in the islands of the South Seas, and 
dressed pig or other animals are thus deliriously cooked. 

The savages of Africa cook hippopotamus and elephant 
meat in stone-lined pits made red-hot by fire ; and a deli- 
cious morsel to them is an elephant's foot placed in such a 
pit and allowed to remain until done. 

Boiling and steaming food came later. Our Indians 
sometimes cooked in this way, and one tribe of them, the 
Assiniboins, were known as the stone boilers, because they 
boiled their food with red-hot stones. Having killed a 
buffalo, they took off its skin and so fitted it into a hole in 
the ground that it was perfectly tight. They next poured 
water into the skin and placed pieces of the buffalo meat 
within it. Then, having made a fire near by, they heated 
great stones red-hot and tumbled them into the water. In 
time the water boiled, and the meat was cooked. 

There are places on the earth where nature herself fur- 
nishes plenty of boiling water and steam. The Yellowstone 
Park, for instance, has boiling springs in which one can place 
a basket of eggs and have them cooked hard or soft, accord- 
ing to the time they are left in, and into which one can drop 
fish and bring them out ready to eat. In the Hot Springs 



IO 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



region of New Zealand there are pools of water which are 
always boiling, and also many wide cracks where the steam 
pours forth from the ground. Here Mother Earth does 
the cooking. The natives have steaming boxes with only 
network of ropes for a bottom. They put the food into 




Here Mother Earth does the cooking. 



the boxes and set them over the steam holes or cracks. In 
a short time the food is cooked quite as well as in our own 
steamers. 

In one way or another, as time went on, the people of 
the world learned more about cooking. Their desire for 
different kinds of food and more food led them to trade 
with each other. Each learned what the others had dis- 
covered as to food getting, food keeping, and food manu- 
facturing. They began to exchange foods ; and through 
such exchanges, grew up what we call civilization and 
especially commerce. 

Our food now comes from all parts of the world, 



INTRODUCTION I I 

and our dinner tables have articles upon them which 
were brought thousands of miles for our use. The tea 
we drank to-day may have been picked by a Chinese 
boy or girl last year, and the sugar in it may have come 
from cane raised in Cuba. The coffee was grown on 
bushes in southern Brazil, and, if we could follow the 
pepper back to its home, we might find half-naked little 
brown boys of Java or Sumatra playing among the vines 
on which it grew. If the loaf of bread could tell its story, 
it might speak of vast fields of golden wheat beyond the 
Great Lakes ; and the roast beef, only a few weeks ago, 
was part of an animal which galloped over the Texas 
prairies, with a cowboy behind it. 

Every meal we eat, in fact, has been brought to us from 
many parts of the earth, and the people who furnished it 
are probably eating some things supplied by us. In this 
way the whole world is working for you and me, and we, 
in turn, are working for every nation which buys the things 
we make or raise to sell. 

It is thus through commerce that food is carried all over 
the world, from the places where each kind can be raised 
the cheapest, and sold for money in exchange. As we 
proceed with our travels, we shall see that almost every 
locality produces some things better than others, so that a 
continual exchanging goes on, and cars and ships are always 
moving this way and that, carrying food products from 
country to country, and from place to place. 

We ship quantities of food abroad every year and com- 
pete in the markets of the world with all other nations 
which have similar things to sell. In our travels we must 
study this globe as a workshop and as a vast retail store. 



12 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

We must learn not only what we ourselves produce to eat 
and sell, but also what other nations raise and what they 
have to sell in competition with us. We want to know 
which nations are our chief customers and what they send 
back to us in money or goods in exchange. 

2. THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT 

BREAD is used more than any other food by civilized 
man. The Bible calls it the staff of life; and raising 
the grains which supply it is one of the world's chief indus- 
tries. The principal grains are wheat, corn, oats, rye, bar- 
ley, and rice. In our country more wheat and corn are 
used than any of the other grains. In some parts of 
Europe the people eat a black bread made of rye, and in 
others they live largely upon ground oats. In Asia and 
Africa some of the natives make bread of millet and in 
some countries rice forms the chief food, being cooked 
whole, or ground to a flour for bread or cake. 

All these grains are the seeds of different grasses. They 
are called cereals, from Ceres, who was worshiped by the 
Romans as the goddess of the harvest. Each grain grows 
best in certain places and climates. Some grains thrive 
better in the United States than anywhere else. We raise 
more wheat than any other nation and more corn than all 
the rest of the world put together. Our total crop of 
cereals for one year sometimes weighs ninety million tons 
and is worth fifteen hundred million dollars. The product 
is so enormous that we cannot realize it. 

Let us take our pencils and see what it would amount 



THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT 



13 



to if it were loaded upon freight cars, joined end to end in 
one long train. We shall suppose that each car holds 
twenty tons, and that it will take forty feet of space on 
the track. Dividing the 
ninety million tons by 
twenty gives us four and 
a half million, the num- 
ber of cars required to 
carry the grain ; and mul- 
tiplying that number by 
forty, the number of feet 
to each car, shows us 
that the train would 
reach to a distance of 
one hundred and eighty 
million feet from its 
starting point. Now five 
thousand two hundred 
and eighty feet make a 
mile ; and, dividing by 
that, we find that our 
train of grain would have 
to be more than thirty- 
four thousand miles long, 
or long enough to reach 
around the earth at the 
Equator and leave 
enough cars over to fill three continuous tracks from New 
York to San Francisco. 

A large part of such a train would be loaded with wheat, 
and that part would be more valuable, in proportion to its 




Heads of wheat. 



14 FOODS: OR HOW TDK WORLD IS FED 

length, than any other. Wheat forms the chief food of 
about one third of the human race. It is the principal 
breadstuff of civilized man ; and it has been used for food 
so long that no one can tell who the first wheat eaters 
were. We know that the Egyptians raised wheat in the 
valley of the Nile about the time that the Pyramids were 
built, for on the tombs near by are paintings of men reap- 
ing and threshing the crop ; and we find wheat mentioned 
as food again and again in the Bible. 

Mills for wheat grinding and ovens containing loaves of 
baked bread were found when the city of Pompeii was 
uncovered. That city had been buried by the lava and 
ashes of Vesuvius only a few years after Christ was born. 
At that time, we know from this discovery that the Romans 
were eating wheat. The Chinese have a tradition that wheat 
came to them direct from Heaven. They say that their 
ancestors were growing it more than four thousand years 
ago; and to-day it is one of the grains planted by the 
emperor when he starts the spring plowing for his nation. 

Wheat has always been one of the chief foods of modern 
Europe. It was brought to America by our forefathers. 
George Washington was a noted wheat farmer in his day ; 
he had a mill at Mount Vernon and exported flour to the 
West Indies. 

As time went on, wheat was raised by our pioneers on 
the new lands farther west. For a while New York 
produced a great part of the crop. Then Ohio, Kentucky, 
Illinois, and Michigan became the chief wheat states, and, 
a few years later, King Wheat drew on his seven-league 
boots and crossed the Mississippi. He trod northward and 
conquered Minnesota and the Dakotas, which are now 



THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT 15 

amongst our richest grain-growing states, and then marched 
over the Rocky Mountain plateau and extended his realm 
to California, Oregon, and Washington. 

Our wheat is of many varieties, each of which grows 
best in certain localities. In some kinds the kernels are 
white and in others red or amber. Some wheat grains are 
large, others small ; some are heavy and some light. The 
most of the wheat of the upper Mississippi Valley is spring 
wheat ; that is, it is planted in the spring and harvested in 
the fall. In other parts of the country winter wheat 
grows better. Such wheat is planted in the fall and har- 
vested in the early summer. Spring wheat is excellent for 
bread making, and it yields more bread to the barrel of 
flour than winter wheat. The winter wheat contains more 
starch ; it also makes good bread and is especially desira- 
ble for pastry. 

In some parts of the United States we raise a hard 
wheat which looks somewhat like barley. It is called 
durum and is excellent for macaroni. It grows upon 
our high, dry lands, where other varieties do not thrive. We 
raise much of it for our own use and ship a great deal to 
Italy, southern France, and other countries, where macaroni 
largely takes the place of bread. 

To-day wheat is grown in many parts of the United 
States. The bulk of the crop comes from the north cen- 
tral part and the Pacific Coast, but wheat is raised in forty- 
three different states and territories, and in many of them 
it is the most important crop. In one year we have pro- 
duced more than seven hundred and eighty million bushels, 
enough to furnish half a bushel to every man, woman, and 
child upon earth. We are now growing more wheat than 



i6 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



any other nation, more than we can consume, and so much 
that we send a vast deal to other peoples in different parts 
of the world. 

Much of our wheat in the Eastern and Central States is 
grown on small farms. Each farmer has one or more 
fields of five, ten, or perhaps fifty acres in wheat, and other 
fields devoted to other crops. In parts of California, in 



F^ 




WHEAT 

£M/60to 640 bushels' pen, 
^Oier 640 „ 



Wheat districts of the United States. 



the Red River Valley, which runs from Canada down 
between Minnesota and North Dakota, and in western 
Canada, as well as in some other regions, the soil is so 
good for wheat that many farmers raise nothing else. In 
such places wheat is raised on a vast scale, a single estate 
employing hundreds of horses and men. There is a ranch 
in California, for instance, which contains ninety thousand 
acres, and another in North Dakota which has seventy 
thousand. In California one field of forty square miles 
has been planted in wheat. That field is so large that one 



THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT 



17 



man would have to work steadily for sixteen years to pre- 
pare it for planting, if he did it in the old-fashioned 
way ; and it would require the labor of many years 
more for him to sow and harvest it all, if this were 
possible. Such farming, however, is easily accomplished 
by modern machinery. The planting is done by a small 
army of men with plows and drills, and the harvesting 




Sulky plow. 

by several hundred steam reapers and threshers, each 
of which may harvest seventy-five acres in a day. 

But we shall see this better in the wheat fields them- 
selves. Let us suppose that we are on one of the big 
farms of the Red River Valley. It is so large that we 
could ride about it for days and not see it all. It is man- 
aged like a great factory. It has hundreds of men working 
in companies, with foremen over them. It has offices 
where the books are kept, blacksmith shops where the 
machinery is repaired, and great stables for its horses. 



1 8 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Some of the fields contain five hundred acres or more. 
At planting time forty or fifty men move across a field, 
each driving a sulky plow. Each sulky has from three to 
six horses to pull it; it has two plows below it which cut 
two furrows as it goes. After the plowing is finished, 
other men ride behind upon disk harrows which grind the 
earth fine, and behind them come others driving machine 
drills which drop the wheat into the soil. These drills are 
long boxes filled with wheat and mounted upon wheels. 




Steam plow. 

Each has a row of holes in the bottom, from which slender 
tubes run down to the ground. Each tube will let out the 
grain just as fast as it is needed; and behind each tube is 
a little plow, which follows and covers the grain as it drops. 
A long line of such drills will soon plant a great field. 
Sometimes traction engines take the places of horses in 
doing this work. One great engine will draw a line of 
plows, with harrows behind them, and still farther back the 
drills which sow the seed. 



THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT IQ 

On a farm like this the work goes on systematically. 
The overseers keep every man moving. The brown sod 
is turned, and the black soil covers the wheat. Each grain 
is laid away in its little nest in the ground. It soon 
sprouts, and, by and by, the farm is covered with what 
looks like green grass. This grows rapidly, aided by the 
rain and the sun. Within a few months it is as high as 
your waist. Now each green stem bursts out at the top 
into a head filled with seeds. The seeds are soft and 
milky at first. They grow harder and harder as the wheat 
ripens, and after a while the tall green stem turns to pale 
yellow. It becomes more yellow as the sun continues to 
shine upon it, and the seeds of grain in the head turn 
yellow, too, inside their yellow husks. Now the heads be- 
gin to bend over, and the farmer knows they are ready for 
harvest. 

The wheat is ripe at the time of our visit to this great 
farm in North Dakota. On all sides of us, as far as our 
eyes can reach, the golden grain is rising and falling 
under the wind like the waves of the sea. We have been 
riding for days on our horses, with wheat on both sides of 
us ; and we might go on for days to come, seeing nothing 
but wheat, wheat, wheat. In many places they have 
begun to harvest the crop. We can see the smoke from 
the steam threshing machines rising here and there over 
the grain, and the long lines of reapers, drawn by horses, 
which are cutting it off close to the ground and binding it 
for the threshers. On several of the farms we have 
passed were machines moved by steam engines, which 
thresh the wheat as they cut it and put it into sacks 
ready to be carried to the elevators or cars. In other 



20 



FOODS: OR I IOW THK WORLD IS FED 




Long lines of reapers. 

places only the heads of the wheat are cut off and 
threshed, the straw being: left on the field. 







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Threshing machine. 



Our method of harvesting is far different from that 
employed in other parts of the world. On some Russian 
farms the grain is still cut with sickles and scythes, just 
as it was in old Egypt in the days of the Pharaohs ; 
while on others our modern machinery is used. In some 
wheat countries the grain is threshed out by laying it 
on the hard ground or barn floors and pounding it with 
sticks and flails, as was done long ago in different 



THE BREAD OF THE WORLD — WHEAT 21 

parts of our country. In Turkey and along parts of the 
lower Danube the wheat is trodden from the husks by 
laying it on threshing floors and driving cattle or horses 
over it. The feet of the animals press the grain out, 
and the powdered straw, or chaff, is thrown by hand into 
the air against the wind to clean it. The wind carries 
away the chaff, and the wheat drops to the ground. In 
China wheat is often so winnowed, the threshing being 
done by boys who ride blindfolded buffaloes about over 
the straw. 

With such methods, it would be impossible to harvest 
our enormous wheat crop. We must have machinery to 
take the places of men and animals ; and we are continu- 
ally inventing new things by which steam does more and 
more, and man less and less. One of our large threshers 
will do the work of hundreds of buffaloes or oxen, and of 
thousands of flails. Indeed, a single threshing machine 
sometimes hulls out more than one thousand bushels of 
wheat in a day. The ripe wheat pours into it, like a great 
golden river ; the husks, chaff, and straw are torn off 
and carried away in another stream ; while the clean 
white grain flows out through pipes at the sides so fast 
that it keeps several men busy holding the bags, that 
all may be caught. In such places the wheat is often 
not bagged at all. It falls into the wagons, which carry 
it to the elevators or grain storage houses at the rail- 
road stations, or direct to the cars, which transport it in 
bulk to the vast elevators of the milling centers, markets, 
or ports. 

In handling a crop like this, machine labor is always 
cheaper than hand labor ; and every effort is made to 



22 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

reduce the cost by reducing the work of man. It has been 
estimated that it took nineteen times as much hand labor 
to produce a bushel of wheat before our planting, reaping, 
or threshing machines were invented as it does now. An 
equally great, or greater, saving is made in the machinery 
by which we transport the grain to the seacoastand across 
the water to other countries. It is largely by our ma- 
chinery that we are able to compete successfully with the 
other nations, who raise and handle their wheat in the more 
expensive, old-fashioned ways. 

<x^Xoo — 

3. HOW OUR WHEAT IS MARKETED 

WE have left the wheat fields and are following the 
grain to the markets. Every town we pass through 
has its elevator, where the grain is stored until it can be 
sent off by train. The ungainly building rises high above 
the rest of the landscape. There are wagons about it and 
loads of wheat waiting for storage. 

The railroad tracks are filled with cars, and long trains 
of wheat are continually moving on toward the east and 
the south. Some are bound for the flour mills of Minne- 
apolis, and some for the Mississippi River, down which 
the grain will float in huge barges to the Gulf of Mexico, 
on its way to South America or Europe. Other trains 
are moving toward the head of Lake Superior, where 
the steamers will carry the grain on down through the 
Great Lakes to Chicago and Buffalo, and from Buffalo 
by the Erie Canal to New York. Some of the ships will 
not go to Buffalo, but will pass through the Welland 



HOW OUR WHEAT IS MARKETED 



23 



Canal to Lake Ontario and by the St. Lawrence River 
out to the Atlantic and across to Europe. A vast deal 
of wheat goes east by rail from Chicago, and another 
great quantity from the wheat fields of the Mississippi 




Every town has its elevator. 

Valley to New York and our other Atlantic ports, and 
thence on to Europe. 

During the wheat harvest this grain pours into almost 
every one of our great shipping centers. It flows from 
the farms to the railroads, and from the railroads to the 
lakes and rivers, and on to the oceans. Much winter 
wheat goes to St. Louis for export or to be made into 
flour. Both spring and winter wheat flow into Chicago 
and New York. On the Pacific Coast the streams of 



24 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



golden grain move from the fields into San Francisco, 
Portland, or Puget Sound, and there divide, a part being 
redistributed for home consumption, and another great 
part going in some of the largest ships of the world to 
Japan, China, Siberia, and the islands of the Pacific. 
Some of this crop is unloaded to feed our cousins in 




Pacific Coast wheat stored in bags. 



Hawaii, and a small portion goes by way of Hong Kong to 
the Philippine Islands. Much of our Pacific Coast wheat 
is stored in bags, and at harvest time these are piled up at 
the stations by thousands. 

Our wheat traffic is so enormous that it is almost impos- 
sible for one to appreciate it. As we have already learned, 
our crop in a single year sometimes amounts to more 



HOW OUR WHEAT IS MARKETED 25 

than seven hundred million bushels, and every bushel 
must in some way or other be taken from the fields to the 
markets. If all this grain were loaded upon wagons and 
hauled by two-horse teams at a ton to the load, allowing 
each wagon and its horses about thirty feet on the road- 
way, it would require a wagon train more than one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand miles long to carry it all. We 
can easily figure how many times such a train would ex- 
tend around the world and what an army of wagons it 
would make if it were stretched back and forth across 
the United States between the Atlantic and the Pacific 
Oceans. 

But what becomes of this mighty wheat crop ? We 
need the greater part of it for ourselves. We require 
almost five bushels per year for every man, woman, and 
child in our country, and this demand must be supplied 
before we can think of shipping wheat abroad. It takes 
more than four hundred million bushels of wheat for our 
own needs, and this amount goes to our mills to be ground 
into flour. 

In addition, we have to save a great deal for seed, and not- 
withstanding this, we have somewhere between one hundred 
and two hundred million bushels, and even more in good 
seasons, left for export to the different nations of Europe, 
Asia, South America, and Africa. This part of our crop 
is sent abroad both as grain and as flour. 

Let us stop a moment and think what the carrying of 
our wheat to these distant countries means. A bushel of 
wheat weighs sixty pounds, or as much as many a ten-year- 
old boy. It makes quite a big bundle ; and, if one should 
be asked to carry it upon his back to any place a hundred 



26 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

miles from his home, he would want a large sum. But 
most of our wheat must be taken more than a thousand 
miles by train to the seacoast, before it can start on its 
long ocean voyage. It must be transported so cheaply 
that it can compete with other wheat in the world's mar- 
kets, and so cheaply that the people of other nations, the 
most of whom earn less than we do, can afford to buy it. 

This would not be possible unless almost the whole of 
the work could be done by machinery. The cost of carry- 
ing it on trains and vessels has been made so small that a 
bushel of wheat is sometimes taken from New York to 
Liverpool for as little as two cents, and it may be carried 
on the railroad from Chicago to New York for five cents, 
or even less. The loading and unloading is done with but 
little hand labor. Indeed, the grain is hardly touched by 
man after it leaves the wheat fields, until it reaches the 
land of the consumer. 

We stop at one of the ports to take a look at the eleva- 
tors through which the grain passes on its way from the 
cars to the ships. These buildings are wonders of modern 
machinery. They are as tall as a twelve-story house. 
Some of them look like great barns ; others are groups of 
porcelain or brick tanks, each lined with steel in order that 
it may be fireproof. Above the tanks, or in the top of one 
of the elevators, is the hoisting and other machinery which 
move the grain in and out. 

There are many elevators at every great wheat-shipping 
center, and all together they will store vast quantities of 
grain. Our wheat crop is harvested within a few weeks, 
and much of it must be stored for a time before it can be 
sent on to the market. Some of the elevators are so big 



HOW OUR WHEAT IS MARKETED 2J 

that each will contain several million bushels at a time, 
and their machinery is such that one can load and unload 
many thousand bushels per hour. At Port Arthur, Canada, 
is an elevator which holds seven million bushels of wheat, 
or enough to supply bread a whole year for a city of fifteen 
hundred thousand people. 

The grain is brought to the elevator in bulk. It is taken 
from the cars in steel buckets fastened to a belt, which carry 



The great Port Arthur elevator. 

it to the top of the elevator and there empty it into great 
bins. When a bin is full, the weight of the grain is registered 
by machines, a door in its bottom opens, and the grain 
pours out through pipes into the tanks or storage rooms 
below. From the bottom of these storage places there are 
long spouts or legs which can be thrust into the hold of a 
steamer. When the spouts are opened, the grain pours 
through them, just like water, until the ship is full. The 
vessel is unloaded in the same way, and the machinery is 
such that a great steamer holding two hundred thousand 
bushels can be unloaded within three hours. 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



4. THE WHEAT OF OTHER LANDS 

THIS morning we shall go outside our own country and 
see what other nations compete with us in raising 
wheat to sell. Our wheat lands are extensive, but they are 
by no means the only ones upon earth. The wheat crop 
of the whole world usually ranges between two and three 

r^sL ^3. «- «► billion bushels per annum, 
varying greatly according as 

gJJ^l ^f[ y| jjjf| p the seasons are good or bad. 

us — rest of world Of this amount, about four 

The world's wheat crop. fifthg ^ produced outs i d e 

the United States. During a recent year, when our crop 
was over seven hundred million bushels, Canada pro- 
duced about ninety million bushels, and the whole North 
American continent eight hundred and forty-seven million. 
In that year Europe raised almost twice as much, and Asia 
just about one half as much, as the United States ; while 
South America, Africa, and Australasia, combined, had 
about as much wheat as the continent of Asia. 

In Europe the black plains of central and southern 
Russia and the plain that slopes to the North Sea and the 
Baltic produce most of the wheat, although a great deal 
comes from the valleys of the Danube and the Po. The 
chief wheat-growing states of Europe are Russia, France, 
Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Roumania. In 
South America the most of the wheat comes from the 
Argentine Republic, although Chile, Uruguay, and south- 
ern Brazil are wheat raisers. Canada is rapidly increasing 
as a grain-growing country, and it has vast areas between 



THE WHEAT OF OTHER LANDS 2Q 

the Great Lakes and the Rockies which will produce excel- 
lent wheat. It now grows many millions of bushels annu- 
ally, and it may some day be one of our principal competi- 
tors in the wheat markets of Europe. 

In Asia the chief grain fields are in India and in Asiatic 
Russia. Northern China gives a small share of the 




Wheat regions of the world. 

product, and in time southern Siberia may be one of the 
chief wheat countries of that part of the world. An excel- 
lent hard wheat is grown in Algeria ; and other wheats 
are raised on the highlands of southern Africa ; while 
Australia and New Zealand are both producers of excel- 
lent wheat. Indeed, wheat is the most important of all 
crops in the temperate parts of the globe. It is a world 
crop and has a world market, to which most of the more 
important wheat-raising countries send a part of their grain 
for sale. 

The market for our wheat is best among the highly 
civilized nations. It forms the chief food of Europe, 
North and South America, and Australasia. It is fast 



30 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

growing in favor in many parts of Asia and Africa, and 
we are now sending wheat and flour by the ship load to 
China and Japan. 

The chief wheat market of the world, however, is Europe. 
Almost every nation of that continent uses wheat ; and, al- 
though Europe grows more than half of all the wheat of the 
world, she annually buys hundreds of millions of bushels 
to fill her own bread basket. Some of the European coun- 
tries, such as Russia, Austria-Hungary, and those along 
the lower Danube, produce more than they need. France 
and one or two other countries have just about enough for 
their needs ; but in the other localities much of the food 
must come from outside, the people finding it more profita- 
ble, owing to the advantages they have through their mines 
and other resources, to engage in manufacturing or in 
raising other things to sell. Great Britain, although she 
once exported wheat, does not now yield enough to supply 
her people with bread for three months of the year. She 
has become a vast factory and brings in the greater part 
of her food from abroad. It is the same with busy little 
Belgium, who, owing to her coal and iron mines, can make 
more by manufacturing than by farming ; and it is fast 
becoming so with Germany, who buys more and more 
wheat every year. The bread of Holland, Switzerland, 
and of Norway and Sweden largely comes from other 
nations ; and the same is true of Spain, Italy, and Greece. 
These European countries all together annually require 
four or five hundred million bushels of wheat in addition 
to what they raise themselves ; and this must come from 
other nations, or their people would suffer. 

The chief wheat buyer of the world is the United King- 



THE WHEAT OF OTHER LANDS 3 1 

dom of Great Britain and Ireland. To meet her demand 
for wheat and flour, in a single year, almost two hundred 
million bushels of grain are sometimes required. She uses 
so much that she fixes the price of wheat in the world's 
markets, each of the chief wheat-raising nations sending a 
large part of her surplus to England. That country is by 
far our best customer. She buys several times as much 
wheat and flour of us as of any other country, our chief 
competitors being Russia, India, Canada, and Argentina. 

But let us take a flying trip to some of the other wheat 
lands of the globe. We need not worry about the season. 
This grain is so widely scattered that it is sown and reaped 
somewhere every month, all the year round. In June, 
when we are harvesting it in California and our Southern 
States, the harvest is going on in Turkey, Spain, and south 
France. In July, when we reap it in the states farther 
north, it is also falling under the knives of Canada, Ger- 
many, France, Switzerland, southern Russia, and the basin 
of the Danube. In August it is harvested in Holland and 
Denmark, Great Britain, Poland, and in western Canada 
and the Dakotas ; while in September and October the 
same work goes on in the Scandinavian Peninsula and in 
northern Russia and Scotland. 

One would naturally think that the harvest must now 
stop, during the cold months of our winter and spring. But 
we remember that the seasons change as we cross the 
Equator, and that the lands south of it have summer when 
we have winter. In November the wheat is ripe in Peru 
and South Africa ; in December, in Burma and northern 
Argentina ; and in January, in lower Argentina, Chile, and 
Australasia. In February and March it is harvested in 



32 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



east India and middle and upper Egypt; while in April 
the natives of lower Egypt, Asia Minor, and Mexico are 
reaping it, as are also, a month later, those of central Asia, 
China, and Algeria. 

But let us suppose that we have left the United States 
and are traveling through the great plain south of Moscow. 

We are in the granary of 
Russia, in the midst of 
one of the chief farming 
populations of the globe. 
How different from our 
bread lands at home ! 
There are no fences 
marking the fields; there 
are no houses or great 
barns standing alone on 
the landscape, but, in- 
stead, collections of 
thatched huts which 
straggle along each 
side of an unpaved road, 
each such collection 
forming a farm village. 
The people here do not 
live on their farms, but 
in these villages, and 
go out from them to work in the fields. Many of the lands 
are owned, not by individuals, but by all the people of a 
village in common. They go out together to plant or har- 
vest the crop. A man is chosen as the overseer of each 
working party, and the women and girls labor side by side 




Russian sowing wheat. 



THE WHEAT OF OTHER LANDS 



33 



with the men and boys. After the crop is gathered, it is 
divided, a portion being stored away in the village granary 
for seed or to provide against famine. 

In most parts of Russia the farming methods are so poor 
that, although the land is good, the average yield of wheat 
is only about ten bushels per acre. The earth is little 




Reaping wheat in Asiatic Russia. 

more than scratched by the plow, and the grain is cut with 
sickles or scythes. In other places modern machinery 
has been introduced, plows like our own are fast coming 
in, and reapers and threshers of American make have 
taken the places of the old-fashioned harvesting tools. 
This is so even in the Caucasus, Siberia, and other parts of 
Asiatic Russia, camels sometimes being used to drag the 
reapers through the ripe grain. The extent of the Russian 
wheat lands is enormous, and the crop is such that vast 
quantities of it are shipped abroad. Most of the Russian 
peasants eat bread made of rye. With the new and better 

KOOUS — 3 



34 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

methods of farming, Russia will probably produce more 
and more wheat for the markets of Europe. 

Our next trip is on the continent of Asia. We are in 
east India, a land which, in good seasons, produces almost 
one twelfth of the wheat crop of the world. The grain is 
grown chiefly on the high plateaus and especially in the 




Reaping with knives in east India. 

far northern parts of the country, where the winters are cold. 
It is raised mostly upon small farms, the average holding of 
all India being less than five acres. Here the farmers 
are black or dark brown, and many of them wear turbans 
while at work in the fields. Most of them live in villages 
of huts built of mud or sun-dried brick, and go out to 
their work. Some own their own lands, but more are 
tenant farmers, and millions work on the farms for a few 
cents a day. It is their low wages and their few wants that 
enable the east Indians to compete with us in the wheat 
markets of the world. 



THE WHEAT OF OTHER LANDS 35 

Their methods of farming are rude. Their plows are so 
light that they often carry them to the fields on their 
shoulders; and they cut the grain with sickles and scythes. 
It is then threshed out with oxen and winnowed in 
the wind. In some parts of India the wheat farms are 
irrigated. Such lands usually produce excellent crops, 
although the average for all India per acre is less than 
that for Russia or for any other of the world's great wheat 
countries. 

In Argentina the wheat farms are largely along the 
eastern rivers, or where the crop can be cheaply shipped 
to the Atlantic. Much of the country is flat, and it has 
railroads which give the farms easy access to the ports. 
The Rio de la Plata is a wide and deep waterway, up 
which the grain steamers sail for many miles, to load 
wheat for the markets of Europe. Let us suppose we have 
left New York and sailed across the Equator, to the 
Rio de la Plata, and up that mighty river and on into 
the Parana to the city of Rosario, on its west bank. We 
have passed wheat fields ever since we entered the river, 
and we might steam for many miles farther on with wheat 
on both sides all the way. Here it is piled up in great 
stacks of bags, ready for shipment ; there they are thresh- 
ing by steam ; and farther on modern reapers, made in 
America, are cutting the grain. 

Rosario is the chief wheat market of Argentina. It is a 
large city, built upon high bluffs above the Rio de la Plata, 
with great warehouses of galvanized iron bordering the 
edge of the river. Most of the wheat is bagged at the 
farms, and the cars carry it to the edge of the bluffs, 
whence it is dropped down into the holds of the vessels 



36 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

through great iron chutes, bag following bag so fast that 
they look like a procession of live animals galloping down 
to the hold. 

The wheat crop of Argentina is stored largely in bags. 
We shall see great piles of bags covered with canvas, as 
we ride through the fields from station to station. There 
are little mountains of them at the ports, and, where the 
wheat is threshed, they are sometimes stacked up on 
platforms, awaiting the time when they can be carried to 
the train. 




Hauling wheat to the cars. 

As we go on, we see men hauling the wheat to the cars. 
What immense carts ! There is one with wheels twice as 
high as our heads. It has sixteen great bullocks hitched 
to it, and it creaks and screeches as they drag it over the 
road. There are eighty bags of wheat in that load, and it 
weighs more than six tons. By and by elevators and 
better means of transportation will probably be adopted. 

The Argentine Republic is comparatively new as a 



FI.OUR 37 

wheat-growing country, and its methods of cultivation and 
marketing are rude and wasteful. The climate is such 
that the stock can feed out of doors all the year round, 
stables are not needed, and barns and granaries are not 
used for storing the crop. The most of the wheat farm- 
ing is done by Italians who have settled in Argentina and 
who live in miserable mud huts called ranchos. They 
raise but little except wheat, working hard during the 
planting and harvesting seasons and doing little the rest of 
the time. They plow with oxen, horses, or mules ; every 
one in the family, boy or girl, who is old enough, going out 
to help with the crop. The boys ride the plow horses and, 
at harvest time, help in cutting and threshing the grain. 



otitic 



5. FLOUR 

WE have come to Minneapolis to learn how wheat is 
turned into flour. This is the chief flour-making 
city of the world. It is situated on the Upper Mississippi 
River, at the falls of St. Anthony, not far from the wheat 
lands of the Red River Valley. Walking down to the 
river, we can see the waters below the falls boiling and 
seething as they rush onward on their long journey to the 
Gulf of Mexico ; and near them the vast tile tanks for 
storing grain, and the mammoth mills which are working 
away, day and night, grinding it into flour. The Missis- 
sippi River, at this point, has such a volume that its falls 
create a power equal to that of many thousand horses all 
pulling at once, and this water, passing into turbine water 



38 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



wheels, gives the power that moves the machinery of these 
mighty mills. 

Minneapolis began to make flour for sale only about 
half a century ago, and it now grinds more than any other 
city in the world. Some of its mills produce several 
thousand barrels in one day ; it has one which grinds 
fourteen thousand barrels every twenty-four hours, and 
five which all together grind more than five million bar- 
rels in one year. We shall appreciate what this means 




Minneapolis flour mills. 



when we know that a barrel of flour is about the average 
amount consumed by one man in a year in the United 
States; and that these five mills annually grind enough 
flour to supply bread for all the people of any one of our 
states — with the exception of New York, Pennsylvania, 
and Illinois — and a large amount for export besides. 

But Minneapolis, while the largest, is by no means the 
only milling center of our country. Great quantities of 
wheat are ground in New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis, 
Kansas City, Chicago, Toledo, Indianapolis, Superior, and 
Duluth. There are smaller mills scattered here and there 



FLOUR 39 

through the various states ; so that all together we have 
more than thirteen thousand mills which are grinding 
flour. We produce in all much more than a hundred mil- 
lion barrels of flour a year. We grind far more than we 
can eat ; and we ship our surplus to nearly every country 
of Europe and to many places in Asia, South America, and 
other parts of the world. 

Before going into one of these great Minneapolis mills, 
let us look at the rude methods by which flour was made 
in the past, and by which it is ground in some of the less 
civilized countries to-day. In the beginning man probably 
ate his grain raw. A little later he found that he could 
chew it more easily if it were soaked in water or pounded 
or mashed in a mortar of wood or stone. After a while he 
discovered that it tasted better cooked, and he began to 
crush or grind it and make bread and cakes. The first 
grinding was probably by pounding, or by rolling one 
stone about upon another, crushing the grain which lay 
between them. 

At first the stones were turned by men or women, later 
by cattle and oxen, and later still by water. As time went 
on, the stones were improved ; and, for many generations, 
the most of the grinding of the world was done by mill- 
stones with roughened surfaces, one resting upon the 
other, the grain entering through a hole in the top stone. 
Such mills are common in Asia to-day. They are largely 
used in Japan, China, and India, and also in Arabia and 
in parts of Asia Minor. In northern China the author has 
seen two women grinding wheat at a rude mill of this 
fashion, and in the city of Canton he has watched men 
pushing the top stones round and round by long poles 



40 



FOODS: or now THE WORLD IS FED 



fastened at right angles to them. In Holland the wind- 
mills make the stones go round, and where the Danube 
River runs through the wheat fields, there are floating 
mills so anchored that the current moves the great wheels 
which turn the stones. 

Grinding with stones was common all over the world 
until a little more than a generation ago, and as milling 

grew more and more 
profitable, some estab- 
lishments had so many 
stones that they pro- 
duced hundreds of bar- 
rels of flour in one day. 
The flour, however, was 
not so good as that 
we now make ; and, 
although the meal was 
bolted and sifted, and 
the refuse ground and 
bolted and sifted again 
and again, a great deal 
of the flour was left in 

Grinding with stones in Africa. t ^ e b ran an( j middlings. 

Then separating machines were invented, by which more 
and more flour was secured. The wheat was mashed to a 
powder between rolls of porcelain and cold steel and was 
so treated that all the pure flour in it was saved by this 
method, and more, cheaper, and better flour was produced 
than ever before. These inventions created a revolution in 
milling. They have been adopted in all the flour-making 
centers of our country ; they are used largely in Budapest, 




FLOUR 41 

the Hungarian capital, which has so many flour mills that 
it might be called the Minneapolis of Europe ; and also 
in Canada, Argentina, and, indeed, in most parts of the 
civilized world. 

In order to understand flour making, as it is carried on 
to-day, we must examine carefully the wheat kernels from 
which flour comes. They are so small that we can hold 
hundreds of them in one hand. They are yellow in color 
and exceedingly hard. Take one and crush it with a stone 
or bite it in two. The inside is white, and the taste some- 
what like starch. Put a few grains into your mouth and 
chew them. They are soon crushed to a mass which, 
after chewing, becomes waxlike or sticky. The starch has 
dissolved, and what are known as glutenous particles are 
among those remaining. Every grain of wheat contains 
starch and gluten, and these are the valuable parts ground 
out for flour. 

Suppose we slice one of these little grains in half and 
place it under a microscope. We can now see that it is a 
mass of white cells with a wall of yellowish cells about 
them, inclosed in several coats or layers of husks. The 
inside cells are starch, and those next them are gluten, 
while the outer layers of husk form the bran. That 
pear-shaped section at the lower end of the grain is 
the germ ; and it, like the bran, is not good for flour. The 
flour cells contain the starch and gluten, some of which are 
also found in the bran. The object of milling is to sepa- 
rate the bran and the germ from the cells of starch and 
gluten, and to reduce the latter to the soft white flour of 
which we make bread. 

But let us go into that great mill over there and see for 



42 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

ourselves. We walk through room after room and from 
story to story. There are but few men about, for every- 
thing is done by machinery, and the grain is hardly touched 
by man from the time it goes in from the elevator until 
the flour pours out into the well-marked barrels, which are 




Interior of flour mill. 

rolled upon the cars to start on their journey to different 
parts of the world. 

The first process is cleaning the wheat. It is so treated 
that the bad kernels are taken out, the dirt and other seeds 
blown away, and the good grains so rubbed with brushes 
and washed by strong currents of air that not a particle of 
dirt is left on them. 

The wheat is now ready for grinding, and it goes in con- 



FLOUR 43 

veyors to the top of the mill, where it is automatically 
weighed and started down through the rolls. The first 
grinding is done between rolls of steel which are slightly 
corrugated or grooved. Here the grains are broken, and, 
as they pass on through other rolls, they are ground 
or mashed finer and finer. After each grinding, the 
meal is run through a machine which separates the 
flour and the bran. It is bolted or sifted through silk 
cloth again and again, and finally it goes through the mid- 
dlings purifier, which sucks it through a sieve of fine- silk, 
taking out what is left of dust and bran and making the 
middlings — which, by the old methods of milling, were 
practically lost — the most valuable part of the flour. Still 
another milling is required to remove the germ, and, after 
that, another to make the flour perfect. In all, the wheat 
passes through six grindings before it is ready to be sold 
for bread making, and its particles are cleaned and sorted 
again and again. 

In addition to these large mills, we have many smaller 
ones scattered over the country, some of which grind not 
only wheat, but also corn, oats, rye, and buckwheat. The 
grain that is ground by such mills is largely supplied by 
the farmers of the neighborhood, and much of their grind- 
ing is for the purpose of furnishing food for stock. Grist 
milling, as this is called, is a great industry, although, 
owing to the better facilities of the large mills, the number 
of smaller mills is rapidly diminishing from year to year. 
We have all together about twenty-five thousand flour and 
grist mills in the United States, and they turn out a product 
the value of which annually amounts to hundreds of 
millions of dollars. 



44 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



6. THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 

WE have left the wheat fields and are now traveling 
through the corn belt of the United States. We 
have ridden through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and, cross- 
ing the Mississippi, are going on the railroad north and south 
through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The corn 
is just ripening, and the country is covered with tall stalks 
of green, tinged with yellow, above which golden tassels 
are swayed by the winds. 

Here and there we leave the cars and ride out through 
the fields. The corn rises high above our heads, and some 
of the stalks are so tall that when we stand upright in the 
saddle we cannot reach to their tops. We get down from our 
horses and walk along the rows. We are in a great thicket 
of stalks, each of which has wide green leaves sprouting 
out from the joints all the way up. Almost every stalk 
has one or two ears wrapped in light yellow husks, with 
yellow, red, or green silk at the end. We pluck one and 
pull off the husks, and a great golden ear, containing hun- 
dreds upon hundreds of grains of ripe corn, appears. We 
rub the grains off with our hands, and have before us the 
Indian corn, or maize, of commerce. 

Now take up one of the grains and bite it in two. Its 
inside is white and starchlike. When we put it under the 
microscope, we shall see that it is made up of many little 
compartments, each filled with cells ; and that there are 
thousands of cells in one grain. Each cell contains starch 
and other matter good for food. Indeed, corn is con- 
sidered one of the very best of foods. We eat it ourselves ; 



TIIK WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 



45 



and it is consumed to such an extent by cattle and hogs 
that it forms the basis of our vast packing-house product, 
enabling us to supply meats not only for ourselves, but 
to ship large quantities to other nations all over the 
world. 

We have already learned the magnitude of our wheat 
crop. Our corn crop is much bigger and is even more 










CORN 

ES3&4* to 3200 bushels, per square mi'fe " \ 




Corn districts of the United States. 



valuable than our wheat crop. Corn thrives better in the 
United States than anywhere else. It is grown all over 
the eastern half of this country, although the largest part 
of our crop is raised in the states before named. We 
produce all together more than four fifths of the corn 
of the world. We often raise more than two thousand 
million bushels in one year, and the crop in the United 
States has amounted to as much as twenty-five hundred 
million bushels. 



46 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Two thousand million bushels ! 

The amount is so enormous that we cannot comprehend 
it. If we could load it on two-horse wagons, as we did our 
wheat, putting forty bushels of shelled corn in a wagon, 
and allowing each wagon and the horses that draw it 
thirty feet on the roadway, the line of teams to haul our 
corn would have to be more than twice as long as that 
required for our wheat. Indeed, the corn would fill the 
wagons of a continuous train more than two hundred and 
eighty thousand miles long. Such a train would more 
than reach around the world eleven times ; and, if we could 
bridge the air and start this train on its way from the 
globe to the moon, it would cover the two hundred and 
forty thousand miles which lie between us and the moon, 
and still leave a train of corn wagons forty thousand miles 
long upon the earth. 

Our corn crop is worth far more to us than is our cotton 
or our wheat crop ; and its value is several times that of all 
the gold and silver we take out of the earth in one year. It 
is worth so much that it makes a great difference to every 
one whether the crop is good or bad. If it could be sold 
as a whole, at the lowest farm price in a good season, it 
would bring in one thousand million dollars, or more than 
enough to give ten dollars a year to every man, woman, 
and child in our country, or about fifty dollars to every 
family. 

But I hear one boy say, How does that affect me ? I 
live far away from the corn belt, and my people have not 
sold one bushel of corn in all their lives. Yes, but the 
money from the corn affects you, nevertheless. It goes 
into all branches of industry, commerce, and trade. The 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 47 

farmers who raise corn buy the things produced else- 
where. Some of the corn money finds its way to the 
mills which make cloth, to the tailors who make clothes, 
and to the merchants who sell them. The price of at least 
one bushel of corn is required to buy a shirt, and of twenty 
bushels to buy any suit of man's clothing. Corn money 
pays for a large part of everything the farmers use. It 
is with corn money that many of them purchase their 
wagons, sleighs, furniture, carpets, books, pianos, bicycles, 
and watches ; little Johnny's first boots, and Mamie's new 
bonnet. 

Some of the corn money goes to the railroads which 
carry the corn to the market and bring the goods back to 
the farmers. The foundries which make the steel rails get 
some of it, as do also the woodsmen who cut the ties for 
the track, the machinists who build the engines, and the 
miners who dig the coal which runs them. The same is 
true of the bookkeepers, the clerks, the teamsters, and 
others all over the country who are more or less engaged 
in business and trade ; so that it is almost impossible to 
find a place where this corn money does not go. Corn is 
also fed so largely to cattle and hogs that the prices of 
meats rise and fall as the corn crop promises to be good or 
poor. Indeed, the world of commerce is so ruled that the 
welfare of any body of men affects that of all the others. 

But let us return to the cornfields and examine further 
this wonderful grain. Indian corn, or maize, as it is some- 
times called, is a native of our continent. It was unknown 
in Europe until America was discovered. Columbus found 
the Indians eating it, and it was he who took the first 
grains to Europe. These were planted in Spain, and from 



4 8 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



there the grain spread to other parts of that continent, and 
eventually to Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Corn is now 
raised in Spain, Italy, southern Russia, and lower portions 
of the Danube Valley. It grows well in Egypt and on the 
highlands of South Africa. Some is raised in Argentina, 
Peru, and Bolivia, and smaller quantities in parts of Asia 
and Australasia. 

North America, however, is the great corn continent. 
This grain is raised in Mexico and Canada, and, more and 

better than anywhere 
else, in the United 
States. It requires 
a well-drained rich 
sandy loam which 
does not bake when 
the season is dry. It 
must have many long 
hot days and warm 
nights ; in fact, just 
such a soil and climate 
as are found in most 
parts of our country, 
and, at their best, 
in the seven states 
known as the corn 
belt, through which 
we have been travel- 
ing. Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, 
and Ohio, each yield more than one hundred million 
bushels of corn every year, and all together they produce 
more than one half the corn of the world. 




In a cornfield. 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 49 

As we ride onward through one big corn patch after 
another, the farmers tell us how the grain is planted and 
reaped. The fields are plowed in the spring, and in May 
the kernels of corn are dropped, either by machinery or 
hand, in hills or drills three or four feet apart. If the seed 
is planted in hills, these are so arranged that the crop can 
be plowed either way. In a few days the grain sprouts 
and makes its way through the soft mellow soil. At first 
it looks much like grass, but as the summer advances it 
grows taller and taller, and its leaves and stalks grow 
larger. It is plowed several times, and the weeds are kept 
down. Then one ear grows on the side of each stalk, or 
two ears, one on either side of the stalk, and at the top the 
tassel appears. 

After a season of about four months the grain ripens 
and is ready for cutting. On small farms this is done by 
hand, the men going through the fields with great sword- 
like knives, called corncutters. They chop down hill after 
hill, cutting the stalks off near the ground and letting 
these fall back into their arms until each man has an arm- 
ful. They then carry the stalks to the shocks and stand 
them in a framework which is formed by bending some 
of the uncut hills of stalks and tying them together. They 
place armful after armful in such places, until at last the 
whole field is cut, and the corn stands on end in big, round 
shocks, each of which is tied tight near the top. The rain 
then flows off as though from a tent, and does not hurt the 
corn. 

The shocks are left in the field for some time and are 
then pulled apart, and the husking begins. This is usually 
clone by hand, the men pulling the husks off the ears, which 

FOODS 4 



5o 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



they throw in piles on the ground. Sometimes the farmer 
boys and girls meet together to help each other husk. 
Such parties are called husking bees. They are great fun, 
especially when one of the party finds a red ear of corn, 
which is supposed to give him the right to kiss the sweet- 




Harvesting corn in Illinois. 



est girl of the party. When the corn is all husked, it is 
taken in wagons to the granary or to the market for sale. 
The most of that sold is shelled from the cob. The corn 
of commerce is always shelled corn. After husking, the 
stalks are again put up in shocks, or carried to the barn, or 
stacked up for feed for cattle, sheep, and hogs. 

On the larger farms much of the work is done by 
machinery. The plows are ridden by men, a number of 
rows being dropped and covered at the same time. The 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 



51 



tilling is by cultivators which will plow several rows at once ; 
and the reaping is with machines which cut many hills and 
bind them. There are also machines which husk the corn 
as they cut it ; and some which tear the stalks and leaves 
apart, so that the cattle can more easily eat them. 

One of the most important things in corn raising is that 
the right seed be chosen. Our corn lands, on the average, 




Cutting corn by machinery. 

the United States over, produce but little more than twenty- 
five bushels per acre, but in some places they produce from 
fifty to seventy-five, and up to even one hundred, bushels 
per acre, for very large tracts. The most corn ever pro- 
duced on one acre was in South Carolina, where the yield 
was two hundred and thirty-seven bushels. 

Now it has been found that if the best seed is used, the 
Crop can be greatly increased ; and many believe that if 
such seed were used all over our country, our enormous 



52 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



corn crop might be doubled. The people of the corn 
states realize this, and every farmer tries to have the best 

seed. He saves the finest ears 
of his thriftiest plants and grows 
seed from them. He selects the 
best of this corn and plants it 
again, finding that his seed grows 
better and better year after year, 
and that by such improvements 
he can vastly increase his crop. 

In the corn states through 
which we are traveling, the 
farmers' boys study seed corn ; 
and many of them have little 
corn patches of their own in 
which they try to raise better 
corn than their fellows. In 
some communities there are seed- 
corn associations which offer 
prizes of from three to twenty- 
five dollars each for the best 
ears of seed corn. The boys 
bring their samples to these 
associations to be judged, and 
the one who has the best gets 
the prize. There are thousands 
of boys in Illinois, Iowa, Mis- 
souri, and other states who are 
raising corn in this way. 
As we travel on through the corn belt, we see the impor- 
tant part that corn holds in providing meat for our tables. 




Good ear of corn. 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 53 

Every farmer has a large number of cattle and hogs. He 
feeds the most of his corn on the farm and sells it as pork 
or beef, in the shape of fat live stock. A pound of corn as 
corn is worth only a fraction of a cent. But when it has 
been turned into beef or pork, it can be sold for several times 
that much, and at the same time the farm be enriched by 
the manure of the animals. On this account, the most of the 
corn crop is fed in the regions where it is raised, the ani- 
mals grinding it up, as it were, into meat. We pass train 
load after train load of fat cattle and hogs on our way 
through the corn states. They have been sold by the farm- 
ers and are now being taken to Omaha, St. Louis, Kansas 
City, Chicago, and other great meat-packing centers. 

In fact, we consume the greater part of our corn crop at 
home. Not one bushel in twenty is shipped abroad. We 
use corn for many things and especially for food, grinding 
it into meal for bread, mush, and cakes. We have break- 
fast foods made of it, and also hominy and cornstarch. The 
most of our alcohol comes from maize, and the grain forms 
the basis of whisky, also of cologne and other perfumeries. 
From it comes glucose, a thick white sirup which is used 
largely on our tables and for making candies, as well as 
for adulterating molasses and honey. 

Another valuable product of Indian corn is starch. We 
saw, through the microscope, the starch cells that each 
kernel contains. There are so many of these cells that 
corn makes more and better starch than any other cereal ; 
and, for this reason, we have great factories which supply 
all we need of this article, as well as large quantities of it 
for shipment abroad. 

The process of starch making is interesting. The grains 



54 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

are placed in great tanks of copper, wood, or iron, each of 
which will hold a thousand bushels at one time. A mix- 
ture of sulphuric acid and boiling water is now let in. 
This softens the grains, and they are then ground or 
crushed to a pulp, in order that the germ and other parts 
may be separated from the starch. They are ground again 
and again, run through rubber rollers, and the pulp is car- 
ried out upon shakers or copper sieves, and afterward upon 
sieves of fine silk, so that the starch is finally taken up by 
the water, and the germ and other parts of the grain are 
freed from it. 

The starch is again washed, to make it more pure, and 
then allowed to settle. It is dried in kilns or furnaces and, 
after passing through a variety of machines, is ready for 
use to stiffen our dresses or shirts, to size paper, and for 
other purposes. Starches intended for cooking must be 
purer and whiter than those used for clothes washing, and 
they require special treatment. 

Starch is also made from other grains, such as rice ; and 
we have seen that it forms a large part of our wheat. It 
is also found in the potato, the sweet potato, and cassava. 
Indeed, the most of the starch of Europe is made from 
potatoes. 

The germ and refuse of the grain used in starch making 
are carefully saved. They are dried and ground to a fine 
meal which contains a large percentage of oil. The oil is 
pressed out and sold for various uses. The cake which 
remains after the oil has been pressed out is excellent 
stock food, and a great part of this product is shipped to 
Europe to feed cattle. 

The leaves and stalks of the corn have a great feeding 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CORN PATCH 55 

value. They are usually known as corn fodder and are 
fed everywhere to horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep. Our 
crop of corn fodder weighs more than our hay crop by 
many millions of tons. 

Corn husks are used for mattresses. The outer portions 
of the stalks, ground to a pulp, make a strong writing paper, 
and the pith is employed in the manufacture of varnish, 
gun cotton, and other high explosives. The pith is also 
used in the construction of our war vessels. It is packed 
between the hull and armor plates of these vessels, to 
keep them from sinking if they should be pierced by a 
shell from the enemy. It is so porous and spongy that 
when the water flows in, it swells rapidly and fills up 
the hole. 

In addition to this field corn, used for grain and meal, 
we have other varieties of maize which form a large part 
of our food. Nearly every American garden has its patch 
of sweet or sugar corn for roasting ears, and perhaps a 
row or so of popcorn, from which come the hard flinty 
grains that burst out white as snow when held over the 
fire. These varieties are grown in the same way as field 
corn. The sweet corn is eaten, however, when the grains 
have just formed and their milky juice has not hardened. 
The husked ears are boiled or roasted, and then eaten or 
canned for use during other parts of the year. We have 
built great canning factories to put up such corn. The 
work in these factories is done by machinery. There are 
machines for removing the silk, others which will cut the 
grains from the cobs at the rate of four thousand ears per 
hour, and still others which will fill twelve thousand cans 
in a day. 



56 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



7. RICE 

WE must keep our eyes open this morning, for we are 
on the other side of the globe from America. We 
have come to Asia to learn about rice, a grain which is eaten 
by every civilized people, and which takes the place of bread 

with a large part of the human 
race. The Chinese like rice 
better than wheat, and all 
Oriental peoples esteem it the 
best of foods. We have seen 
that America is the chief corn 
continent because it has just 
the soil and climate best fitted 
for that crop. For the same 
reason Asia might be called 
the rice continent. Parts of 
it have just the conditions 
needed for raising excellent 
rice, and therefore Asia pro- 
duces more rice than any other of the great land divisions. 
Indeed, it raises many times more than all the rest of the 
world put together. 

The grain thrives in the rich wet soil about the mouths 
of rivers, in low valleys, and in flooded plains. The south- 
ern and eastern portions of Asia are largely made up of 
hot river bottoms and low-lying plains, cut by streams 
which furnish ample water to irrigate the crop. These 
climatic and surface features are especially marked in 
British and Farther India, and also in the central and 




The Chinese like rice. 



rice 57 

southern portions of China. Rice also grows well in cer- 
tain mountainous islands of the tropics, where the rainfall 
is heavy and the streams furnish water for irrigation ; in 
Java, for instance, where the sides of the mountains are 
terraced for rice ; and in Japan, where their lower slopes 
are spotted with rice fields, the water from above flowing 
from level to level down to the rice which grows on the 
plains. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Asia raises so large a pro- 
portion of the rice crop of the world, the grain grows in al- 
most every warm country. It thrives in the lowlands of our 
South Atlantic and Gulf States, in swampy parts of south- 
ern Europe, and in the delta of the Nile. It is produced in 
abundance in the Philippines, in Sumatra, Ceylon, Mada- 
gascar, and Mauritius, and also in Hawaii and many other 
islands of the Pacific. It is raised in the West Indies and 
in the tropical lowlands of Central and South America. 

Like wheat, rice is one of the oldest of grains. It is 
supposed to have originated in India ; and it was eaten by 
the Chinese thousands of years before Christ. It began 
to be cultivated in Europe, in the marshy lands about 
Venice, shortly before America was discovered, and it was 
brought to the United States about two hundred years 
later. Our first seed rice came from Madagascar. In 
1694 a ship from that island, which had been driven out of 
its way by a storm, landed at Charleston, South Carolina. 
Its captain had a sack of unhusked rice with him ; and, 
upon leaving, he gave it to Thomas Smith, who was then 
the governor of the state. The seed was distributed. It 
was planted in low swampy places, and a large yield of ex- 
cellent rice was the result. The farmers learned about this 



58 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 




crop. Those who had the right soil began to plant rice, 
and in a short time it became one of the chief crops of 

South Carolina and 
Georgia. Later it was 
grown in Mississippi, 
Alabama, Louisiana, 
and Texas. 

Our rice is about 
the best raised any- 
where. It is sweeter, 
larger, and better 
colored than that of 
Asia, and it com- 
mands a high price. 
There are as many 
varieties of rice as 
of potatoes or apples. 
There is a wild rice which grows in southern Asia, an 
upland rice which requires no irrigation and can be raised 
in the mountains, and there are many irrigated varieties 
which produce the rice of commerce. Some rices have 
small grains, and some large ; some are white, and some 
red ; some are scented, and some not. The nations which 
largely live upon rice know the different kinds, just as we 
know the best coffees or teas ; and each rice commands its 
own price in the markets. 

As we go on with our travels, we shall observe that rice 
is not a cheap food. It costs so much that in many parts 
of India, China, Japan, and other countries of Asia the 
poorest people cannot afford to eat it ; and they live upon 
the seeds of millet, sorghum, rye, and barley instead. We 



Sheaves of Louisiana rice. 



rice 59 

shall see that more work is required to produce rice than 
any other cereal ; so much that the price of the grain must 
be high in order to pay for the labor of producing it. 

Let us visit some of the rice regions. We start in 
Japan. The lowlands are a patchwork of fields not bigger 
than our gardens, each walled with a little embankment 
about a foot high, upon which grass and wild flowers are 
growing. Some of these fields are covered with water, and 
plants that look like grass are growing in them. The sun 
is now at its brightest. It makes the water sparkle like 
diamonds, and the green grassy rice plants stand out like 
sprays of emeralds upon it. Higher up are other patches 
of green rice, and the hillsides are everywhere terraced, 
so that the whole looks like an inclined plane of wide 
irregular steps of mirrors or silvery water spotted with 
green. 

In some of the patches the rice is higher than in others ; 
here the water has been drawn off for the time, and there 
the dry ground is being prepared for planting. See that 
field with the quaint little brown men, women, and chil- 
dren working in it. Each wears a hat like a butter bowl ; 
the women have on gowns of blue cotton, and the men and 
children are half naked. They are digging up the ground 
with mattocks and smoothing it off for the crop. 

Now let us go on up the hill to where that family is 
planting the sprouts. We may take off our shoes, if we 
will, and wade in and help. The field has been flooded, 
and the water comes halfway to our knees. The rice 
planters are wading ; they are bending over, reaching 
clown under the water, and setting the green, grasslike 
sprouts, raised in the seed beds, deep in the mud. 



6o 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



Rice is grown in the water, and it must be kept flooded 
the greater part of the time until it matures. This ne- 
cessitates a system of canals or other means of irrigation. 
In many places in Japan and China men are always pump- 
ing water for the rice fields. They raise it by hand from 
one level to another in buckets or baskets ; they run water 
wheels with their feet, and they drive animals about, turning 
wheels to which jars are attached. In the Philippines, 




Setting out rice sprouts in Japan. 



Java, and in large parts of southern Asia huge ungainly 
water buffaloes drag the plows and harrows through the 
mud ; and in some places such animals are blindfolded 
and made to turn wheels which elevate the water from 
the streams to the fields. 

After the rice sprouts are set out, the cultivation has 
only begun. Water must be let on and off from time to 
time, the rice be weeded again and again, and when at last 



RICE 



6l 



it has turned a bright yellow, it must be gathered, pulled 
off, and husked before it can be made fit to cook. 

Let us suppose ourselves in the Philippine Islands 
when the rice is ready for harvest. We are in the wide 
valley north of Manila, on the island of Luzon. It is cut 
up by rice fields, but here the rice is ripe. Instead of the 
green young plants we saw in Japan, the fields are of a 
rich, golden yellow. The grain has been watched for days 




Plowing for rice in the Philippines. 



by the boys and girls ; and some of the fields have scare- 
crows in them, and others strings stretched across them 
which can be shaken to frighten the birds. 

We stoop over and examine the ripe grain. It is much 
like barley or rye, and it stands quite as thick on the 
ground. Each stem has headed out into a number of 
seeds, tightly inclosed in bright yellow husks. 

Over there are some of our little brown cousins reaping. 



62 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

The party is composed of men and women, each of whom 
holds a small knife with which the rice stalks are cut 
one by one. When an armful has been cut it is tied up 
in a sheaf and laid on the ground. By and by the 
sheaves will be carried home to the granary, and the rice 
got out from time to time, as required by the family ; 
or, it may be husked in the fields and shipped to the 
market. 




Filipino rice harvesters. 

In the chief rice-raising countries this harvest is an im- 
portant event. At its beginning the natives often have 
picnics, and in some places, such as Java, they erect little 
temples in the fields to the goddess of the harvest. Each 
temple is about as big as a pigeon house ; in it is placed 
the usual offering, consisting of an egg, some fruit, a bit of 
sugar cane, and a dish of cooked rice. 

But even when the harvest is over, the rice is by no 



RICE 63 

means ready for food. The paddy, which means the grains 
with the husks on, has to be removed from the straw. In 
many countries this is done by drawing the grain over saw- 
shaped knives, so that the heads are pulled or cut off. The 
rice must now be husked out before it will be ready for 
use. The husks are not loose in rice, as in wheat, barley, 
and oats ; they stick as though glued to the grain, and 
they must be pounded or ground off. 

This is done differently in the various parts of the world. 
The rice used by the natives of many countries for their 
own food is stored in the sheaf, or paddy, and cleaned as 
it is needed ; while that sold in the markets of the world 
is more often cleaned and polished by machinery in rice 
mills, which have been built for this purpose at the chief 
rice-exporting centers. 

The natives of Asia husk rice in all sorts of ways. Here 
in the Philippines and in Java, as well as in many other 
places, they pound the husks off in mortars of stone or 
wood hollowed out for the purpose. They are also flailed 
off or trodden off by animals and men on threshing floors ; 
and sometimes in mortars, by rude machines worked by 
water. In most places the chaff is taken out by throwing 
up the mixture of husks and rice against the wind, so 
that the refuse is blown away, and the clean rice caught 
in a basket or allowed to fall to the ground. Indeed, 
nearly every country has its own way of cleaning this grain. 

It is different with the mills which prepare the rice for 
the markets ; they are much the same everywhere. We 
can see them in Saigon, Cochin China, in Bangkok, Siam, 
at Bombay and Calcutta in India, and also in Rangoon, the 
chief exporting place for the rich rice fields of Burma. 



64 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Let us suppose that we have sailed up the Bay of Bengal 
and into the mouth of the Irrawaddy River, to visit one of 
the rice mills of Rangoon. It is a large building on the 
banks of the river, where the paddy can be easily landed 
from the boats and the cleaned rice loaded on the steamers 
for Europe. The manager, who acts as our guide, is an 




Japanese hulling rice in hand mills. 

Englishman, but the workmen are brown-skinned Burmese, 
naked to the waist, and with cloth turbans tied around their 
heads. 

The mill is run by steam, and it is filled with modern 
machinery. We watch the paddy as it passes through one 
set of millstones after another, until the husks are torn off 
and the rice comes out clean. We observe that the stones 



RICE 65 

are carefully set, that they may not injure the white grains. 
The husks stick so tightly, however, that the grain is rough 
when it comes out. It must now be smoothed for the 
market. Think of polishing grain as one polishes silver 
or gold ! That is what is done with almost all the rice we 
eat. The grains are thrown by machinery, again and 
again, upon rollers covered with sheepskin, until each is as 
bright and clean as a new silver spoon. The rice is now 
ready for the markets, and it is bagged for shipment. In 
the older rice-raising countries much rice is eaten un- 
polished, and it is said that polishing the grain rubs off 
much of its nutritious and appetizing qualities. 

The United States has the finest of milling machinery 
for threshing, cleaning, and husking rice; and it also has 
machines for planting and cultivating it. Our fields are 
irrigated, where it is necessary, by steam pumps, some 
stationary, and some floating on flat boats or lighters. We 
use sulky and gang plows to break up the ground, cut-away 
and disk harrows to smooth it, and machine seeders to put 
in the grain. We reap our rice with harvesters and thresh 
and clean it by steam. In this way we are rapidly increas- 
ing our rice crop ; we already raise almost all we consume, 
and we may some day ship a great deal to other parts of 
the world. 

In our Asiatic journeys we have had rice served in one 

way or another at almost every meal. It is usually eaten 

boiled or steamed and is seldom ground up for flour and 

made into bread or cakes. It is often served with a highly 

seasoned curry and, in Japan, with dried fish and a sauce 

known as soy. The Chinese and Japanese make rice beer 

and rice wines. Chinese boys, on New Year's Day, pop 
foods — 5 



66 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

rice as we pop corn ; and we learn that the two grains 
taste much the same. 

Rice is also used to make starch. The inner skin of 
the husk and the dust from cleaning, as well as the straw, 
are fed to stock. The husks are often used for packing 
breakable articles; and in Japan the straw is woven into 
bags and wrappers which take the place of our goods 
boxes. From it the everyday hats, shoes, or sandals of 
the common people are made ; it forms the rain shawls, 
which take the place of our waterproofs, and the shoes 
for horses and oxen, which are tied on with straw strings. 

The rice crop is quite as important to many of the 
Asiatic countries as our wheat or corn crop is to us. 
In China a large part of the taxes are paid in this grain, 
and in Japan the god of good fortune is a jolly little fat 
man, named Daigoku, seated on bags of rice. As we 
have passed through the country, we have seen him in 
almost every store and in the home of every poor man we 
have visited. 

8. OTHER GRAINS WHICH FEED MILLIONS 

IN addition to wheat, corn, and rice, several other ce- 
reals are raised, which are used as food by many millions 
of people. In parts of Europe barley and oats are favorite 
breadstuffs. The poorer classes in Germany, Austria, and 
Russia use rye flour as the people of the United States 
use wheat. Rye and barley, when growing, look much 
like wheat ; and oats resemble the other three, save that 
their grains head out in little branches, instead of in one 
long head. 



OTHER GRAINS WHICH FEED MILLIONS 



6 7 



All these cereals have long been used by man. Barley 
was grown in China more than six thousand years ago, 
and it formed one of the food stuffs of the early Egyptians, 
Greeks, and Romans. The oat is prehistoric, but rye 
seems to be of a later origin. Oats were grown by the 
Romans, though not by the 
ancient Greeks, nor, as far as 
we know, by the Egyptians. 
Caligula, the Roman emperor, 
is said to have fed his horses 
on golden oats ; but as the 
grain is yellow, the color alone 
was probably referred to. 

Barley, rye, and oats are 
raised and harvested much 
like wheat. They are cheaper 
than wheat ; for they will 
grow upon poorer soils and in 
a greater variety of climates, 
thriving in and north of the 
wheat belt. Barley will grow 
farther north than almost any 
other cereal. It is raised in 
Alaska and Iceland, and also as far south as Algeria and 
Egypt. The Norwegians use it for bread, and it is also 
employed for beer making and horse feeding in the United 
States and Europe. If we should become sick during our 
travels, the doctor might tell the nurses to feed us barley 
broth. Pearl barley is nourishing and is often used as 
a thickening for soups. 

The world's crop of barley annually amounts to more 




Oats. 



68 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 




Barley. 



than one billion bushels, of which we, in the United States, 
produce a comparatively small part. Our best barley is 
grown in California, and we raise more in 
that state than in any other; Iowa, Min- 
nesota, and Wisconsin coming next in 
order. In 1904 our barley crop amounted 
to one hundred and thirty million bushels. 
If we were attending school in Germany 
or Russia, and should take our lunches 
with us, the sandwiches would probably 
be made of slices of rye bread. The bread 
would be dark brown in color ; were it of 
the German variety known as pumper- 
nickel, it would be almost black. The 
common bread of many European countries 
is made of rye flour. The armies of northern Europe 
use it, and also the poorer classes of Austria, 
Germany, Russia, Norway, and Sweden. It is 
nutritious, and the people like it quite as well as 
wheat bread. 

The most of the world's rye crop is grown 
upon the great sandy plain which crosses Europe 
from the North Sea into Central Russia, sloping 
down to the Baltic ; and more of it in Russia than 
anywhere else. The rye crop of the United 
States is comparatively small. We produce only 
twenty or thirty million bushels a year ; our best 
rye states being Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and 
New York, after which come Nebraska, Michigan, 
and Minnesota. We use the grain somewhat for bread, 
but more for stock feeding. 




Rye. 



OTHER GRAINS WHICH FEED MILLIONS 



6 9 



Oats are raised in the United States chiefly as a food 
for domestic animals, although they are. being eaten more 
and more by man in the shape of oatmeal. In Scotland 
oatmeal porridge is one of the most common articles of 
diet, and oat cake and oat crackers are much liked. Oats 
are excellent for all kinds of stock, and they are used 
for stock feeding in many parts of the temperate zone. 

The world's crop of this grain is enormous. It is greater 
in amount than that of any other cereal, exceeding wheat 







.,..- . . * ..•«,-.»^*.T ■ 





Harvesting oats in the United States. 



or corn by several hundred million bushels every year. 
Our own crop of oats is often more than one third as big 
as our corn crop, and it is always greater in bulk than our 
wheat crop. Russia now competes with us as the world's 
chief oat producer ; next come Germany and France. 
Our best states for oats are Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, New York, 
and Texas. 

All the grains we have so far examined are the seeds of 
various kinds of grasses. We have one grain from a 
plant which might be called a sister or cousin of the snake 



JO FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

weed or dock weed. It is of an odd shape, looking more 
like a miniature beechnut than a wheat or corn kernel. It 
has a black coat, but is white within, and when ground up, 
it becomes a grayish white flour, which is used to make 
griddle cakes. This grain is buckwheat, and the cakes are 
buckwheat cakes. No doubt most of us have eaten them, 
served with butter and maple molasses. Buckwheat can 
be grown on the poorest of soils. It thrives in the temper- 
ate zones and is produced chiefly in the United States 
and in some parts of Europe. 

It is wonderful how many seeds are used for food. 
Every locality seems to have one or more seed grains. Far 
up in the Andes Mountains near Lake Titicaca, on the high 
plateau of Bolivia, where oats and wheat will not mature, 
there is a little plant known as quinua (ken-wah), the seeds 
of which form an important food of the Indians of that 
region. They are not much larger than the head of a pin, 
but the people make a mush of them and eat it with milk. 

As one travels over the world, he finds the natives of 
distant lands living largely upon grains which we feed 
only to sheep, horses, cattle, and hogs. This is especially 
so of the millets, which grow in large quantities in many 
parts of the world. Indeed, it is said that more of the 
human race live upon millet than upon any other cereal. 
East India consumes more millet than all other grains put 
together. There are vast numbers of poor people in 
northern China who cannot afford rice, who grind up 
millet for bread and mush. Millions of bushels of millet 
are raised in Japan, and in Bokhara, Turkey, and Persia. 
It is also one of the chief foods in Upper and Lower Egypt, 
the Sudan, and in parts of South Africa. 



OTHER GRAINS WHICH FEED MILLIONS 



71 



The millets belong to the family of grasses, and chiefly 
to such branches of that family as have smaller seeds than 
oats, wheat, or barley. One of the most common millets is 
known as the fox-tail, its long fat bushy head being shaped 
like the tail of a fox. This kind often grows as tall as rye, 
or taller. Fox-tail millet is largely used in our country. 
It is raised in China, having been 
grown there for more than four 
thousand years. So many seeds 
of this millet have been found in 
the remains of the lake dwellers 
of Switzerland that we believe 
it was used as food when those 
people lived. This was during 
the Stone Age, a period when 
man had not yet learned to make 
metal tools, and cultivated the soil 
almost exclusively with implements 
of stone and wood. 

In the United States the barn- 
yard millets are largely grown for 
hay, and similar kinds are used in 
India and in other parts of Asia 
for food, the seeds being parched or boiled with milk. 

In addition to these millets, there are larger kinds 
which we know by other names. In northern Africa 
a large seeded millet is called durra and in the West 
Indies, Guinea corn. Almost all of us see millet straw 
at home every clay, and many of our girls have probably 
swept with such straw again and again. I refer to the 
millet of which our brooms are made. This is called 




Fox-tail millet. 



72 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 







broom corn. It grows as tall as corn, but branches out 
into many stiff straws at the top. Its seeds are found at 
the ends of these straws, and from the straws brooms are 
made. Broom corn will grow on any soil 
and in any climate in which Indian corn can 
be successfully produced. Certain varieties 
have been cultivated for different purposes 
in India, China, and parts of Africa for 
some centuries, but the United States, Italy, 
France, and Germany are the only countries 
which produce it solely for broom straw. 

Sorghum and Kafir corn 
are other large millets re- 
lated to Indian corn. Kafir 
corn thrives in South Africa, 
where it has long been culti- 
vated by the Kafirs, from 
whom it derives its name. 
It is used as food for both 
man and beast. Sorghum is grown in 
Egypt and in many parts of Asia for its 
seed, which is ground up to make bread. 
All millet seeds are cheaper than wheat, 
but they will not make good flour ; there- 
fore the civilized nations use them for 
stock. In our country Kafir corn and 
sorghum are raised for forage, and sor- 
ghum is raised also for the sweet juice of its stalk, 
which is squeezed out and boiled down into sirup 
much like sugar cane, as we shall see farther on in 
our travels. 




Sorghum. 




Kafir corn. 



ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 73 



9. ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 

WE are up early this morning. The sun is just peep- 
ing above the eastern horizon ; but the long low- 
wooden building where we have slept over night is already 
alive with rough-looking men. They are in their shirt 
sleeves, their trousers are tucked into their high boots, and 
most of them have cruel spurs on their heels. Each man 
has a saddle, a bridle, and a long rope in his hand. They 
are cowboys, and we are with them on one of the great 
cattle ranches of the far West, making ready for the 
round-up of to-day. 

We have come to this region to see something of our meat 
industry. By "meat" is meant the flesh of cattle, pigs, and 
sheep; the word "game" being used for the flesh of wild 
animals; and " poultry " for that of chickens, geese, ducks, 
and other domestic fowl. Meat is eaten by man all over 
the world ; and in our country it forms a large part of his 
daily food. It is much dearer than grain, and nations are 
often considered rich or poor according to the amount of 
meat their people can afford to eat. In this respect our 
nation is one of the richest of all. We raise so much 
meat that every man, woman, and child of us can have 
some daily and still leave enough to export a large quantity 
to Europe and other parts of the world. 

Almost every farm in the United States rears some cattle, 
hogs, and sheep, so that we have a vast number of such 
animals. Indeed, I should not like to have to count them 
all. It is enough to know that if the drove could be 
stretched out in double file, it would belt the globe several 



74 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

times at the Equator and leave enough animals over to 
make more than another living, bellowing, bleating, grunt- 
ing, baaing, belt around the globe, from pole to pole. 

Of these animals the most important, as far as the meat 
is concerned, are the cattle and hogs. The cattle are the 
most important of all. They are worth about as much as 
all the rest of our farm animals put together, including 
not only the hogs, sheep, and goats, but also the horses and 
mules. We had so many cattle at the time of our last 
census that if they could have been gathered together 
in one great drove and divided equally amongst us, there 
would have been several such animals for every family in 
the United States. Of this vast drove, the greater part 
was in the corn regions. Large numbers were on farms 
in other sections of the country, and millions were grazing 
on the plains where we now are. 

Just east of the Rocky Mountains, running north and 
south from Canada to Texas, there is a wide strip of land so 
high and dry that it is not good for farming, except where 
the few streams give water for irrigation. The moisture 
is so squeezed from the winds of the Pacific Ocean, as they 
blow over the cold mountains, that only enough rain is left 
to produce a thin grass. This comes up in the spring and 
is cured, as it stands, by the hot sun, as the summer goes 
on, furnishing a food upon which cattle can liye all the year 
round. In some other parts of our country one or two 
acres will give enough grass for a cow or an ox. On these 
high plains the grass is so thin that it often takes fifteen or 
more acres to feed a single animal, so that the cattle are 
widely scattered, and but few can feed in one place at a 
time. 



ON A WESTERN cfajg.E RANCH 75 

Nevertheless, there is enough grass on these plains to 
support a great cattle-rearing industry. Men have brought 
vast herds to the plains, and they live here with their cow- 
boys watching their stock. They usually establish their 
homes near a stream, having a blacksmith shop, stables, and 
corrals for ponies, and lodging and eating houses for the cow- 
boys, or rather cowmen, who take care of the cattle. Their 
food and other supplies are often brought hundreds of miles 
from the nearest railway station, in canvas-covered wagons, 
and the cattle, when ready for the market, are driven to the 
railroad, whence they go east on the cars. It is on such a 
ranch that we shall suppose ourselves to be at this time. 

We step outside the house and look about over the wide 
dreary plain. The ground is flat, and we can see for miles 
on each side. The earth is covered with dry dusty grass. 
Here and there two or three cattle are feeding. Near by 
we hear the neighing of horses. The sound comes from 
the corral or yard over there. See, the cowboys are bringing 
the ponies. There are two hundred of them. They come 
kicking and jumping. There are enough for the cow- 
boys, as well as one for each of us. 

Now we are mounted and are galloping over the 
plains. The foreman has divided the party and given 
each man his own work to do. We circle about, driving 
the cattle, which feed in little groups or singly, here and 
there, to the center. There are also cowmen from other 
ranches about the country doing the same, so that by noon 
thousands of cattle are gathered together. 

We eat dinner, supplied by the cook's wagon, sitting flat 
on the ground, and then take fresh ponies which have 
been brought from the corral to aid in the round-up. 



7 6 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



The purpose of the round-up is to divide the cattle 
among their owners and to mark every one, so that it can- 
not be lost. In this great ranching country there are no 
fences. The most of the land belongs to the government, 
and cattle may be grazed anywhere, provided they can 
have water. The lands along the streams are usually 




H— ^ ^^MH 



Cowboys at dinner. 



owned by the ranchmen, who, having the water, in this 
way control large tracts of dry country. 

The animals thus run wild ; they stray far from their 
homes and get with other cattle, so that it is only by mark- 
ing them in some way that a man can keep track of his 
own. This is done by branding or burning a letter or 
other mark into the skin of the animal when it is a calf. 
After that the brand will stay as long as the animal lives. 
The round-ups are to bring all the cattle together, in order 
that each man may pick out his own, and every one have 



ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 



77 



his calves, born since the last round-up, branded with his 
own mark. 

The cowboys are now in the saddle, and the work is 
beginning. How noisy it is ! The bulls are bellowing, the 
cows lowing, and the calves bleating for their mothers. The 
cattle are stamping and pushing this way and that. The 
air is filled with dust made by the stock and the ponies. 




A round-up. 



The cowboys circle round and round, keeping the great 
drove together. Now they ride in and pick out their own 
stock, selecting the animals by the brands upon them. By 
and by the cattle are separated, and the branding begins. 

Some of the crew have built a fire at one side, and in 
this they are heating long irons red-hot. Men with lassos 
are getting out the little long-legged calves. They ride 
about among the cattle chasing the calves. When one darts 
for the open, a cowboy gallops after him, and, with a sweep- 
ing throw, sends his rope in such a way that it catches the 



78 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



calf around the hind legs. The well-trained pony stops 
short and braces itself ; for the lasso is tied to its saddle. 
The calf tries to run and is pulled by the rope to the 
ground. It is now dragged to the fire. One of the brand- 
ing party grabs it by the ears and sits down on its neck. 
Another pulls out one of its hind legs, so as to make the 



a %k 








Branded with the brand of its mother. 

skin tight; while a third takes the red-hot iron from the 
fire and quickly presses it upon the live flesh. There is a 
smoking, hissing, and sizzling, as the iron burns through 
the hair deep into the skin. From now on the hair will 
not grow on that spot, and the calf will be marked to the 
end of its days. The branding takes but a moment, and 



ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 79 

the calf is then loosened and runs off to let its mother 
console it by licking the wound. The ownership of the 
calf can easily be told from its mother ; the cows know 
their own calves quite as well as our mothers know us, 
and at the round-up each calf is branded with the brand of 
its mother. At the same time a record of the act is made 
in the stock book of the ranch. 

We watch them branding other calves in the same way. 
The work goes on for days, the cattle being carefully 
guarded at night, until at last all are branded, and each 
man has his own. 

What we have seen is but one feature of the great 
industry of providing beef for our tables. We might 
spend weeks on the plains, observing something new every 
day. We would be interested in selecting the cattle for 
shipment, in driving them to the stations, and in riding 
with the stock to Omaha, Kansas City, or Chicago. 

Such ranching is largely carried on in Montana, Wyo- 
ming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. There 
are also many cattle in the Indian Territory and in parts 
of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. In Texas much 
of the stock-grazing country is composed of lands belong- 
ing to the state, which have been set aside for the support 
of the public schools. They are leased by the year or ten 
years to cattle men for only a few cents per acre, but there 
is so much of this land that it brings in a vast sum. 

One of the largest cattle ranches of the world is in 
Texas. It would take us more than a week to ride on 
horseback from one end of it to the other ; for it is more 
than two hundred miles long, and ten miles wide, and all to- 
gether is larger than the whole state of Connecticut. The 



80 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

company which owns this land obtained it in an odd way. 
Texas wanted a new state house, and the men who have 
since made this ranch offered to furnish the money and 
build it if the state would grant them this land. Their 
offer was accepted, and the state house was built. Their 
land has so increased in value that the undertaking has 
proved to be a very profitable one. They have put wire 




On a western ranch. 

fences about the ranch and are grazing more than one 
hundred thousand cattle upon it. 

There are many other large ranches throughout the 
west, where the lands belong to private parties, and not 
to the state or government. Such ranches are often 
fenced with wire, and some of them have the top wires of 
the fence so fixed that they can be used for telephoning 
from one part of the estate to the other. A big ranch is 
managed like a great store or factory, a careful account 
being kept of everything. The cowboys work under 
foremen, and the cattle are carefully watched from the 
time they are born until they are ready to be shipped to 
the markets. 



ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 8 1 

As we ride over the plains, cattle rearing seems an easy 
business, and we find ourselves wishing we could be ranch- 
men or even cowboys. We watch the skill with which the 
men ride their bucking, kicking ponies, and we delight in 
the races and jollity at the round-ups. If we should stay 
long, however, we might find that the stockman's life is 
by no means all fun. He must be out in the snow, watch- 
ing the cattle to see that they are not lost or do not starve 
in the storms and blizzards. He often has to ride all day 
and to sleep out in the open air ; and there are sometimes 
prairie fires, when both cowboys and cattle must run for 
their lives. To guard against the spread of such fires, wide 
roads are sometimes made across the prairies or around 
the ranches. 

There is also danger of losing the cattle by diseases and 
by wolves, panthers, and other wild animals. The little 
prairie dogs dig holes in the ground, where they live in 
prairie dog villages with their little dog families. They 
eat up the pasture ; for twenty dogs will consume as much 
grass as one sheep. They are sometimes killed by the 
cowboys, who drop poison into the holes. Rattlesnakes 
make their homes in these holes ; and if one of the cattle 
steps in, it may be bitten by a snake, or may break its leg 
before it gets out. 

Although millions of cattle are reared on these ranches, 
we must not suppose that they form the chief meat supply 
of our country. Many more animals are kept on farms 
than on ranches. The great corn belt raises far more 
beef than any other part of our country ; and the animals 
reared farther west are often brought to the corn states to 
be fattened before they are shipped to Omaha, Chicago, 

1- ( N iDS 6 



82 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Kansas City, or other meat-packing centers. Some are 
sent in fast stock express cars to the Atlantic seaboard, 
whence they are shipped to Europe. They are carefully 
treated on the cars and steamers. One man has charge 
of a certain number of animals, and stays with them all the 
time, to see that they get plenty of water and feed ; so that 
when they land they will be in good condition for sale. 

This business is so enormous that cars and ships are 
built especially for it, and a drove of live beeves is always 
moving across the Atlantic Ocean from our continent 
to Europe. The larger part of the drove goes to the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which 
countries, also, as we shall see later, buy a vast deal 
of fresh beef, killed in America, and sent abroad in cold 
storage. 

Indeed, our meat industry is so important that the great- 
est of care is taken in rearing fine stock and in transport- 
ing it to the places where it is consumed. There are some 
breeds of cattle which will produce more and better beef 
than others, and our ranchmen and farmers are always 
trying to get the best stock. 

There are in the world about one hundred different 
breeds of cattle. Some are large, and some small; some 
are especially good for meat, and others for the rich milk 
they produce. In India there are cattle with great humps 
on their backs, which some of the people worship, and 
which others use as draft animals and for food. The 
best of all kinds of modern beef cattle come from England 
and elsewhere in northern Europe. We have imported 
many such cattle, and they now form a large part of our 
stock. 



ON A WESTERN CATTLE RANCH 83 

The first cattle brought to America came with Columbus 
to the West Indies in 1493. Some of their offspring were 
taken to Mexico, whence they spread northward and became 
the forefathers of the Texas cattle of to-day. Others were 
brought by the Spaniards to Florida. Later still a great 
many fine cattle were brought from England and Holland 
to Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, and other colonies. 
From that time until the present we have been improving 
our cattle by importations from European countries, par- 
ticularly from England and Holland, these two countries 
being the homes of some of the best dairy, as well as beef 
cattle, in the world. 

No other country exports so much meat as the United 
States. In the year ending June 30, 1904, we sold more 
than one hundred and fifty million dollars' worth of meat to 
foreign countries, and in addition many live cattle. We 
then sent three hundred and eighty-seven thousand cattle 
and almost three hundred million pounds of beef to the 
United Kingdom, which is our principal customer. The 
chief other countries which furnish meat to Europe are 
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Argentina; but all 
of these, except Canada, furnish more mutton than beef, 
and the Canadian exports largely consist of the bacon for 
which that country is noted. 

There is a considerable shipment of cattle in Europe 
from one country to another ; and in South America they are 
largely exported from Peru, Chile, Argentina, and southern 
Brazil. At many of the ports of that grand division the 
shipping facilities are poor, and the cattle are loaded and 
unloaded in slings, and sometimes they are raised into the 
ships by ropes attached to their horns. 



8 4 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



10. A VISIT TO A GREAT PACKING CENTER 

WE have come from the West to Chicago with a load 
of fat cattle, to see how they are turned into meat 
for our tables. Our train had troughs of fresh water 
fastened to each side of the cars, for drink on the way, and 
we traveled at a high rate of speed, in order to reach the 




Union Stock Yards, Chicago. 

market in the shortest possible time. We rode in the ca- 
boose, a rough sleeping car at the rear of the train, with 
the cowboys who fed the stock and looked them over at 
every stop to see that all were well. 

Upon arriving in Chicago we came direct to the Union 
Stock Yards, in the heart of the city ; and here we are now, 
in the biggest cattle market and the chief meat-packing 
center of the world. Our beeves are already unloaded, 



A VISIT TO A GREAT PACKING CENTER 85 

and they will rest in the feeding pens for twenty-four 
hours before they are offered for sale. 

But let us learn something about meat packing, or the 
industry which relates to the killing of cattle, hogs, and 
sheep, and the fitting of their flesh for food or for sale in 
our markets, or for shipment to other parts of the world. 
Meat packing is one of the largest businesses of the United 
States. A vast capital is invested in it, and its product in 
one year has amounted to almost eight hundred million 
dollars. It employs thousands of people at the packing 
centers, and thousands more in our towns and cities to 
handle the meats. The products are so widely distributed 
that it requires a vast number of cars and ships to carry 
them ; there is hardly a provision store in our country 
which does not sell some of them ; and there are few of 
our people who do not consume, in one shape or another, 
some of the animals, thus killed, every day. 

We have already learned how cattle were first brought to 
this country. Some of those imported by Sir Ralph Lane 
from the West Indies, in 1610, were considered so valuable 
for breeding that it was forbidden to slaughter them on 
pain of death, and others which arrived later were carefully 
cared for. The stock throve, and as time passed on there 
were plenty for killing. The farmers raised their own 
meat, and drovers brought live animals to the towns 
and cities and sold them to the butchers. As the 
pioneers moved westward, they took cattle with them, 
and Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky soon became stock- 
raising centers. 

At first the meat was eaten only where it was killed. 
Each town had its slaughter houses, and all fresh meats 



86 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

were prepared by the local butchers, just as is done in out- 
of-the-way places all over our country to-day. Then men 
began to cure pork for shipment to other localities ; and, in 
the middle of the last century, Cincinnati, which at that time 
was the center of our corn belt, had a large business in 
killing hogs and sending cured pork by the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, and around by sea to 
our Atlantic ports. 

As railroads were built, the packing industry increased. 
Pork was then shipped in every direction, and meat pack- 
ing extended westward, with the growth of the country, 
until, at about the time of our Civil War, it had become a 
great industry in Chicago. Later still, with the develop- 
ment of the corn belt, packing centers sprang up at St. 
Louis, St. Joseph, Kansas City, and South Omaha. But 
Chicago, all the while, held its own and steadily increased 
its business, until now it is the chief pork-packing center 
of the world. 

Long before this, however, the industry had been 
widened so as to include all sorts of fresh meats. At the 
beginning the only meat packed was that which could be 
dried or salted. Beef treated in this way was put into 
barrels and shipped to our eastern markets, and from them 
it was sent on ships all over the world. Then it was dis- 
covered that if meat were kept in very cold rooms, it not 
only could be preserved fresh for a long time, but it would 
be better for eating when taken out, than it was when freshly 
killed. It was also found that all meat could be better cured 
if it were properly chilled first. Artificial methods of re- 
frigeration or cooling were then invented, and these inven- 
tions form the basis of the great meat-packing industry of 



A VISIT TO A GREAT PACKING CENTER 



87 



to-day. By them meat can be killed throughout the year 
and carried fresh in refrigerator cars all over the country. 
Even in the hottest weather it can be taken to the sea- 
board and carried in cold rooms across the ocean to 
Europe. Meat so stored will stay fresh for days, weeks, 
and months ; so that when it reaches the dinner tables of 




Cold storage beef in a packing house. 



our country or of Europe it is just as good as when it was 
killed in Chicago. We are now sending several hundred 
million pounds of fresh beef yearly across the Atlantic ; 
and most of the fresh meats eaten in our own towns and 
cities come from animals killed some days before in our 
great packing centers. 

Let us take a walk through the stock yards. They are 
in the heart of Chicago, but we seem to be in a city of 



88 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

animals rather than of men. The air is filled with the 
bellowing of steers, the lowing of cows, the bleating of 
calves, the baaing of sheep, and the shrill squealing of 
pigs. There are thousands upon thousands of these ani- 
mals all about us ; great droves of them are being taken 
out of the cars ; and tens of thousands are moving this 
way and that, on their way to be sold or killed. 

We climb to the roof of a tall building at one side, and 
look down. Pens filled with cattle, hogs, and sheep reach 
far out on all sides. The pens are arranged along streets 
which cross one another at right angles ; and we are told 
that there are twenty miles of such streets. The city has 
its own sections and wards, each with its own class of four- 
footed citizens. There is one section devoted to cattle. It 
has several hundred beasts in each pen. Farther over is a 
section of sheep, where thousands of woolly creatures are 
bleating and baaing ; and here at our feet is an army of fat 
porkers, some contentedly grunting and others squealing 
like mad. 

Notice the pens. Each has a trough for water and an- 
other for food. There are miles of such troughs and 
many miles of drainage and water pipes. The water for 
the stock comes from artesian wells, driven twelve hundred 
feet down into the ground, far below the level of Lake 
Michigan ; and the food is the best that can be procured. 
See the railroad tracks which extend out on each side. 
There are one hundred and fifty miles of them in and about 
the stock yards. Those long trains coming in are bring- 
ing new animals, while those going out contain refrigerat- 
ing cars, carrying the meats and other packed products 
to all parts of the country. 



A VISIT TO A GREAT PACKING CENTER 



8 9 



These buildings in the center, which rise high over the 
pens, are where the rulers of this city live. They form 
the exchange where the stockmen and packers come to- 
gether to buy and sell the four-footed citizens. These 
men handle tens of millions of hogs, cattle, and sheep 
every year. The animals in the pens are changed daily. 
Those we see now will be dead by this time to-morrow, and 
another horde will have taken their places. Those hogs 




Cattle being driven to the pens. 

down in the street are on their way to be slaughtered, and 
the wild-eyed oxen which are surging this way and that, 
just below us, will all be killed before nightfall. 

The chief selling time is in the morning. Then the 
streets are filled with cattle, hogs, and sheep, being driven 
by men from one place to another. Some of the drovers 
are on horseback and some on foot. How they yell at the 
beasts and crack their great whips ! The agents of the 



90 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

big packing houses are moving about, looking over the 
stock. They buy at a glance ; and the sellers jot down 
the purchases in their notebooks and are paid later on. 
After the selling hours are over, the animals are weighed, 
and then taken off to the great meat factories or to other 
pens to await their time to be slaughtered. 

We go down and walk about the stock yards and 
then enter one of the packing houses near by, follow- 
ing some beeves about to be killed. The animals are 
driven up an inclined roadway to the upper stories, so 
that gravity may be used in handling the product, and 
the meat be ready for shipment when it again reaches the 
ground. 

We go ahead to where the killing is done. As the 
cattle come up, they are inclosed in a pen, about which, 
on a platform, a bare-armed man walks, holding a long- 
handled hammer. Only a few animals are let in at a time, 
and the pen is so small they are jammed close together. 
The man strikes them on the head one by one a single 
blow with the hammer, killing them instantly. As the 
cattle in the pen fall down, the floor drops a little, and 
they roll out on to the cement pavement below ; and the 
floor goes back, for the slaughter of others. 

Each of the dead animals is now hooked by the hind 
leg to a pulley and raised, head downward, to a wheel, which 
runs on a track overhead to the other departments of the 
factory. As it goes on past man after man, each does 
something to help fit the carcass for beef. One butcher 
cuts the throat to let out the blood, which must be saved to 
make fertilizer ; others clean the carcass ; and others take 
off the skin, hoofs, and horns, all of which are saved for 



A VISIT TO A GREAT PACKING CENTER 



91 



oil, glue, leather, or some other useful thing, — not an ounce 
of the animal goes to waste. 

When the carcass is ready for beef, it is divided along 
the backbone, making two sides, in which shape it is sold. 
It is now not more than twenty minutes since the steer 
was killed, but it has already passed through the hands of 




Canning beef. 



about twenty men. The meat has yet to go through many 
other processes before it will be ready for eating. If it is 
to be canned, it travels to the departments where it is 
trimmed, cooked, and sealed up in tin cans, each of which 
has a bright-colored wrapper pasted upon it. 

If the beef is to be sold fresh, it first slides along on over- 



92 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

head trolley tracks into a great refrigerating chamber, so 
large that it will hold ten thousand sides of beef at one 
time, and so cold that the temperature is just above freez- 
ing. There it remains forty-eight hours, and becomes 
chilled through and firm to the touch. It next travels on 
a track down to the ground floor, where it is cut into 
quarters and loaded into cold storage cars, which will take 
it to the butchers of Boston, New York, or other cities 
or towns. The meat is hung upon hooks from the ceil- 
ing of the cars, and the cars, when loaded, are shut tight 
and not opened until they reach their destination. 

If the meat is to be shipped across the Atlantic, it is 
transferred at the ports to which it is sent by rail to the 
cold storage chambers in the holds of the steamers. From 
seven to twelve days are required to carry it over the ocean ; 
and it is sold as fresh meat in Europe about three weeks 
after it leaves Chicago. 



II. HOGS AND PORK PACKING 

AS we passed through the corn belt, we saw something 
of the hog industry of the United States. About 
one third of our corn crop is used to make pork, and 
although hogs are raised everywhere, the corn belt pro- 
duces more pork than any other part of our country. 
In 1900, when a census, or count, of all our animals was 
made, it was estimated that the United States had more 
than sixty-two million hogs. If they had been equally 
divided, there would have been about four hogs to every 
family, including a sucking pig for each of the babies. 



HOGS AND PORK PACKING 



93 



These pigs are of such enormous value that if all the 
gold that is taken out of the earth in any one year could 
be coined, it would not be enough to pay for the pork 
products we make in that year. We raise more hogs 
than any other country. Germany and Austria- Hungary 
come next, but our product is greater than that of both 
those countries combined. We raise all the pork we 







One third of our corn crop is used to make pork. 



need for ourselves and supply a vast quantity to other 
nations in different parts of the world. In 1905 we ex- 
ported more than a billion pounds of pork and other hog 
products, and received, therefor, more than one hundred 
million dollars in money. We ship a great deal to Eng- 
land, France, Holland, Germany, and other parts of 
Europe ; we send some to Africa, and also to Australia, 
Asia, the West Indies, and South America. Our pork is 
eaten in Alaska and in the Philippine Islands ; and there is 



94 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

scarcely a great steamship which crosses the ocean that 
has not some of it on board. 

Pork is raised, however, by nearly all nations. The hog 
seems to be a native of most parts of Europe and Asia. 
He came to this continent with our forefathers, and has 
grown as rapidly in number as have his human owners. 
He is now found throughout North and South America. 
In Canada he eats field peas ; in Cuba and in other islands 
of the West Indies he thrives on palm nuts; in the Philip- 
pines, Samoa, and Guam on cocoanut meats ; and in parts 
of the Chinese Empire on sweet potatoes and chestnuts. 

In no other place, however, is pork packed in such vast 
quantities as in Chicago. This city does such a big busi- 
ness in hogs that it is sometimes called Porkopolis, or the 
city of pork. A larger proportion of the meat packing 
about the Union Stock Yards, where we have been in- 
specting cattle and beef, is devoted to hogs and pork 
products, and the very establishment in which we saw the 
cattle killed also slaughters hundreds of hogs every hour. 

The managers tell us that pork packing is quite as 
interesting as beef packing, and we ask to be shown 
through this branch of the factory. We first go to where 
the hogs are brought in fresh from the cars, on their way 
to be slaughtered. They have not rested twenty-four 
hours to cool off, as the cattle had, before being slaugh- 
tered, and they look hot and tired. Some are so fat that 
they cannot move fast, and all are grunting and squealing 
as the drovers force them this way and that. The first 
process is cooling them off. This is done by sprinkling 
them with ice water, giving each a cold bath before 
killing. 



HOGS AND PORK PACKING 



95 



After this, the hogs move onward to a great solid wheel 
which stands upright with chains fastened here and there 
on the rim. As each hog comes in, a chain is attached to 
one of his hind legs, and, as the wheel revolves, he is slowly 
raised, kicking and squealing, from the ground. The hogs 
follow each other closely; so that there is a continuous 




Pork packing in Chicago. 

line of squealing porkers always moving from the floor 
to the ceiling. As each hog nears the top, he is auto- 
matically taken off the wheel, and hung, head downward, 
on a hook which slides on a sloping rail. This takes him 
on to the butcher, who cuts his throat. A little later the 
carcass is dropped into a tank of steaming hot water, 
and then dragged up to a tower, where the bristles are 



96 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

scraped off by machinery, and the pork comes out pink 
and white. 

The carcass is now raised to a hook, and, like the beef, 
is carried on an overhead track to be dressed and cut up 
for the market. It has to move rapidly, for there are hun- 
dreds of other carcasses behind it, and thousands must pass 
over this track in the course of a day. As it goes by the 
workmen, each does his part ; one cuts it in halves, one 
trims off a bit here, another a bit there ; and within twelve 
minutes it passes into the refrigerating room, where it 
hangs for two days. 

After this the pork, now cold and stiff, is taken out and 
started on another journey on the trolley rail. It goes to 
the chopping block, where the sides are cut into halves, the 
hams going one way, and the shoulders another. 

If we follow these halves, we shall find that the work of 
cutting has only begun. The pieces are divided again and 
again. Such of the meat as is to be eaten fresh goes into 
the refrigerating cars, and is shipped to the markets all 
over the country. That which is to be cured — and this is 
usually nine tenths of the hog — is cut into different shapes. 
The hams, shoulders, bacon, and some other cuts are 
salted or put in pickle to be cured. They often remain 
there for several weeks, after which they are taken out 
and smoked in great ovens, where thousands of hams, 
tongues, dried beef, and bacon are cured at one time. After 
smoking, the hams and bacon are put up in canvas, for 
shipment to the markets. 

The other parts of the hog are treated by various meth- 
ods, each part being prepared for some kind of food. Saus- 
age is made of the trimmings from the hams and the cuts 



HOGS AND PORK PACKING 97 

from the butchers' benches and the killing rooms; the 
meat being chopped, mixed, and stuffed by machinery. 
Spices, pepper, salt, and ginger are put in, and some- 
times a little potato flour and water. The sausage meat 
is forced into the skins of the intestines of the hog by 
great machines, which work so rapidly that they fill about 
a mile of skins in one minute. The sausages are delivered 
upon a table, at which stand several men who tie them in 
links. They are then ready for sale. 

The fat of the hog also forms an important article of 
commerce. It is known as lard. We ship large quanti- 
ties of it abroad. It is taken chiefly from the parts of 
the hog not used for food, the fat being rendered out. In 
1904 we exported almost three hundred million pounds of 
lard to the United Kingdom alone. 

In meat packing every part of the animal is saved for 
some purpose. The workmen tell us they can use all of the 
ox but its kick, and every bit of the pig but its squeal. 
The blood of the animals is used to make fertilizer, 
albumen, and stock feed, and also for sizing paper and for 
refining sugar. The hides are turned into leather of vari- 
ous kinds, and the hair into camel's-hair pencils and shoddy, 
a sort of cloth. The hip bones, horns, and shoulder blades 
are made into hairpins, combs, and buttons ; the thigh 
bones into handles for toothbrushes and knives; while 
the skulls, jawbones, and teeth are sold to bone burners 
and bone grinders. The marrow, as well as the hoofs and 
horns, are made into glue ; while the tails give hair for 
cushions and mattresses. The bristles of the hog are used 
for brushes of various kinds ; and from the lining of its 
stomach comes pepsin, which the doctors give us to aid 



98 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

our digestion. From the fats, soaps of all kinds are made, 
as well as oleomargarine, which takes the place of butter. 
Some parts of the beef are canned in the form of soup, 
and from other parts are made the liquid beef extracts 
which are given to invalids. 

Even the dirt and refuse are sold as fertilizers, and from 
other waste is made cyanide of potassium, a chemical of 
great value in gold mining. Indeed, the by-products of 
modern meat packing are of such importance that every 
large factory has a scientific workshop connected with it, 
where skilled chemists are always experimenting, trying 
to discover new uses for parts of the animals which once 
went to waste. 



12. MUTTON 

WE have left the United States and are traveling far 
south of the Equator, in the southern part of New- 
Zealand. We have come here to learn about raising mut- 
ton for the markets of Great Britain and Ireland. New 
Zealand is on the other side of the world from Great 
Britain, and it is so far south of the Equator that, by way 
of the Strait of Magellan, it is twelve thousand miles or 
more from the markets of England. Nevertheless, the 
modern arrangements for shipping are such that sheep in 
a frozen state can be carried from New Zealand to Eng- 
land, and sold there at a lower price than those raised by 
the British at home. In this way New Zealand mutton 
comes into direct competition with our enormous meat ex- 
ports to the United Kingdom ; and as Great Britain is our 



MUTTON 



99 



best customer, we are anxious to learn how the business of 
preparing the mutton of New Zealand for the market is 
carried on. 

But first, let us glance at the sheep industry of our own 
country. We raise many million sheep, both for wool and 
mutton ; and although we have no mutton for export, we 
have enough sheep and lambs to supply our own markets. 
Manv are slaughtered at Chicago and at the other great 




A New Zealand mutton factory. 

packing centers, and fresh mutton, like beef and pork, is 
sent to different parts of our country in cold storage cars. 
Sheep are also killed by the local butchers throughout the 
United States, so that mutton is found in every market 
house, and it forms one of the chief meats on our tables. 

Sheep were among the first animals domesticated by 
man, and they have been raised for ages in nearly all parts 
of Europe and Asia. Columbus brought some with him 
to the West Indies on his second voyage, in 1493 ; and 
later others were imported from Spain to Mexico and 
1.0FC 



IOO 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



Florida. The Mexican sheep grew rapidly and spread 
northward to our country. There were soon great flocks of 
them in New Mexico, and later the priests of the Mission 
Stations in California began to breed them. Indeed, it is 
said that these missions, in 1825, had more than one million 
sheep of their own. As early as 1609, sheep were brought 
from England into Virginia, but the wolves which then 
infested that region killed so many of them that they in- 
creased but slowly. Still later some were imported from 




Sheep on a western ranch. 

Holland into New York, and from Great Britain and Spain 
into New England ; these thrived and in time spread 
throughout the colonies and were taken westward, as the 
country was settled. 

At present the most of our sheep are reared in the 
west. Many are to be found in the corn and wheat re- 
gions, and they are pastured in great flocks on the high 
dry lands of the Rocky Mountain plateau. At the last 
census, we had all together about sixty-two million sheep. 
The states having more than any of the others were Mon- 



MUTTON IOI 

tana, Wyoming, and New Mexico, each of which had five 
or six millions ; next came Ohio, which had more than four 
millions, chiefly in small flocks scattered over the farms. 
Utah followed with about four millions; and then Idaho 
and Oregon with three millions each. 

On the high lands of our western plateau sheep are 
pastured out of doors all the year round. Like the cattle 
we saw on the great ranges farther west, they live on the 
thin grass which has been cured by the sun as it stands. 
They are herded by shepherds, who live in wagons, with 
their flocks, far out on the plains. One man and his dogs 
can guard two or three thousand sheep and keep them 
from straying. From time to time, some of the flock are 
shipped east to the markets, or to the corn belt to be fat- 
tened, and thence on to the packing houses. The meat is 
treated much like that of the cattle and hogs we have 
already inspected. 

Sheep are now reared in most European countries and 
especially in southern Russia, Spain, and the mountainous 
lands along the Mediterranean Sea. They graze in north- 
ern Africa as far south as the borders of the Sahara ; and 
since southern Africa has been settled by Europeans, a large 
sheep-growing industry has sprung up there. In the wilds 
of The Sudan are sheep which grow hair instead of wool ; 
and in Abyssinia and northern China and Mongolia are 
some with great tails so loaded with fat that they drag on 
the ground. Sheep thrive on most of the highlands of 
Asia. They are found in vast numbers in Argentina, 
Australia, and New Zealand, and also in the Falklands, 
far south of the Equator. The principal sheep-raising 
countries are Australia and Argentina, after which come 



102 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



the United States and New Zealand. Australia, how- 
ever, raises its sheep chiefly for wool, while in Argentina 
and New Zealand the mutton is also an important 
product. 




Sheep in Australia. 



In New Zealand both food and climate are just right 
for producing fine mutton. The weather is mild all the 
year round ; there is plenty of rain, and the rich grasses 
keep the sheep fat. The country is one of high moun- 
tains, many hills, and deep valleys ; there is good water 
everywhere ; and turnips, on which the sheep thrive, can 
be easily grown. We see the woolly flocks feeding as we 
ride over the islands. They are kept inside fences and are 
not herded as are our sheep of the Rocky Mountain pla- 



MUTTON' IO3 

teau. The farmers live in comfortable homes near their 
flocks, and the farming scenes are much like those of our 
Middle States. 

But stop, where are the barns and the haystacks ? We 
see none as we look over the landscape. They are not 
required here. In New Zealand the climate is so mild 
that the grass keeps green all the year round, and there is 
little need of putting up hay where the sheep and cattle 
can always feed out of doors. 

See that flock of sheep eating turnips. The field is 
green, for they have just been let in, and they are munch- 
ing the tops. By and by all the green will have disap- 
peared, and the black ground, with the bare turnips upon 
it, will look as though it had been sown with new base- 
balls. The sheep will next eat these, biting away at each 
turnip, until they have eaten every bit of the root. Some 
of the farmers dig up the turnips and store them in pits 
or mounds, and feed them to the sheep as they are 
needed. 

Now let us visit the factories and see how this far-away 
mutton is prepared for the tables of London. We choose 
one at Christchurch, where five thousand sheep are killed 
every day. It seems rather small after the great packing 
houses of Chicago, but this is only one of many in the 
country ; the frozen meat annually shipped selling for mil- 
lions of dollars. 

We take a carriage at the hotel in Christchurch and 
ride out to the factory. The buildings are great sheds, 
surrounded by paddocks filled with sheep ready for kill- 
ing. Behind them are drying yards, which, at first sight, 
seem covered with snow, but are really spotted with great 



104 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

piles of newly washed wool. This wool has been pulled 
from the skins of the animals killed for mutton. 

We are first taken to the stock yards, where men are 
driving the fat sheep up a passageway to the killing de- 
partment on the second floor. See how quickly they go. 
Sheep are remarkable for following ; and here the leaders, 
known as decoys, are trained to conduct their fellows to 
slaughter. Day after day, year in and year out, those old 
sheep at the head start the flocks up that passage, and 
lead them to death, stepping out at the top to go back 
for more. 

We follow the sheep into the building, and go with them 
into the killing room. We are now in a great hall, walled 
with pens, each of which holds twenty sheep. The pens 
face a central aisle, where stand the butchers. The sheep 
die at the rate of ten every minute. 

After killing a sheep, the butcher hangs it upon a hook 
behind him and strips off the skin. He cuts off the head 
and washes the body down with hot water. This is done 
so quickly that in less than seven minutes the sheep is 
killed, dressed, and ready for freezing. It is now hooked 
to a pulley, and started by means of a shove ; and the pul- 
ley, which runs by gravity on little steel tracks, carries the 
carcass off to the cooling room. From now on it will 
scarcely be handled by man until it is ready for shipment 
to Europe. 

We go into the rooms where the animals are cooled for 
forty-eight hours, before they take another trip on pulleys 
into the cold chamber, where they are frozen, preparatory 
to their long voyage over the ocean. In this place every- 
thing is ice cold, and Jack Frost is king. The ceiling and 



MUTTON 



I05 



the sides of the room have great coils of pipe covered 
with frost; and we are told that the coldness comes from a 
mixture of ammonia and brine, so arranged that it reduces 
the temperature of the room to only a few degrees above 
zero. The place is full of frozen meat now. The pink 
and white mutton hangs down from the ceiling in rows of 
headless sheep, so close to one another they almost touch. 




Slide into the cold storage chamber of a steamer. 



There are one thousand carcasses in this room, all frozen 
stiff. We tap one of them, and the sound is like that 
made by tapping a drum-head. We take it down and rest 
it on the floor. It is as hard as stone and so stiff that the 
meat does not bend. It chills our fingers, and we are glad 
to see it back on the hook. 

We next go into the rooms where the frozen mutton 
is stored. These are of the same character as the freezing 



I06 FOODS: OK HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

chamber, save that they are filled with sheep carcasses, 
each inclosed in a bag of white cotton, and these are 
stacked up like cords of wood. They are now ready for 
shipping, and will be taken from here and loaded upon 
the cars which will carry them to the harbor. There 
they will be thrown out into trough-like chutes, down 
which they will slide into the cold storage chamber of a 
great ocean, steamer, not to come out until they are landed 
in London. 

Many establishments similar to this are to be found in 
the Argentine Republic, a country which also sends much 
frozen mutton to England. The chief factories of Argen- 
tina are at the great seaport of Buenos Ayres, and the 
mutton goes almost directly from the factories into the 
holds of the steamers. The distance from Buenos Ayres 
to London is only a little more than half as great as that 
from New Zealand, but nevertheless, New Zealand exports 
a larger amount of mutton. In both countries beef also 
is frozen for the English markets, but Argentina far 
exceeds New Zealand in shipping frozen beef, although 
its export of fresh beef to the United Kingdom is far less 
than ours. 

In the mutton freezing factories the waste is as carefully 
saved as in our packing houses. The wool is taken from 
the skins and used to make clothing, and the skins are 
dried and shipped in bales to the leather markets. The 
hoofs are used for glycerine and glue, the big bones make 
knife handles, buttons, and combs, and of the entrails 
fiddle strings are made. The bones are ground up to 
feed chickens, and both blood and bones are used as 
fertilizers. 



MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE 107 



13. MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE 

MILK is one of the world's best foods. It is used every- 
where, and many different kinds of animals are 
reared to supply it. In the far northern parts of Europe, 
along the Arctic Ocean, the Laplanders get milk from the 
reindeer, and freeze it in blocks to be kept until needed ; 
in the Deserts of Sahara and Arabia the natives drink the 
milk of camels and asses ; and in western Asia there are wan- 
dering Tartar tribes who live largely on mare's milk. In 
some European countries the goat is the poor man's cow, 
and on the little island of Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, 
thirty thousand goats are kept for their milk. Switzerland, 
Germany, Austria, and Norway, as well as France, Italy, 
and Spain, consume goat's milk by the millions of gallons. 
Some of the people drink it in their coffee, some use it to 
make butter, and some manufacture it into cheese for ship- 
ment all over the world. 

Sometimes the milk is delivered direct from the goat, 
the animal being driven through the streets from house to 
house, the purchasers watching the goatherd and making 
him turn his can upside down before he begins, to be sure 
that no water gets in. A good milch goat will yield a 
quart or more at one milking, and it can be milked three 
times a day. 

But it is not from goats, sheep, camels, or reindeer that 
the most of the world's milk supply comes. It is from 
cows, which are kept for this purpose all over the world. 
We have seen how cattle are reared for meat. We also 
keep many for butter and cheese. Such animals are known 



io8 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



as dairy cattle, and the United States has more of them than 
any other country on earth. If everybody in this country 
drank milk, there would be enough to give each of us at 
least one glass every day. At the time of our last census, 
we had about eighteen million dairy cows ; and our product 
of milk, butter, and cheese was so great that dairying was 
one of the most important of all our industries. 




Jersey cow. 

A good dairy cow is one which turns the most of its food 
into milk rather than into beef. It should produce at least 
six quarts of milk every day for three hundred days of the 
year, or about four thousand pounds of milk in that time. 
Many of our best dairy herds annually yield more than five 
thousand pounds of milk for each cow, and there are some 
cows which give every year ten times their own weight in 
rich milk. Brown Bessie, the champion Jersey butter cow 
of the Chicago World's Fair, produced, in ninety days, 
thirty-six hundred and thirty-four pounds of milk. 



MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE 



109 



When we visit the dairies, we shall learn that the quality 
of the milk is quite as important as the quantity. The Jer- 
sey cow, for instance, gives a comparatively small amount 
of milk, but this is so rich that it makes more butter than 
any other kind. Some fine Jerseys yield twenty-five or thirty 
pounds of butter a week, and a single cow has produced as 
much as one thousand pounds in one year. The Guernseys, 
which, like the Jerseys, originated on one of the islands of 




Red Polls cow. 



the English Channel, have rich milk ; and so have the Ayr- 
shires, which came from Scotland; and the Red Polls and 
Shorthorns, which are bred also for meat. Holstein cows are 
large black and white cattle, which originally came from 
Holland. They yield so much milk that it is not uncommon 
for a cow to give her own weight in milk in one month, but 
the milk is not so rich as that of the other breeds above 
mentioned. 



IIO FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Indeed, milk is chiefly valued according to the amount 
of cream or butter fat it contains. We can understand 
this by examining a drop or so under the microscope. As 
we pour the milk out, it looks like a white liquid, and one 
might suppose its particles to be the same all the way 
through. Under the microscope, however, we see that it is 
a clear, transparent fluid with many minute globules, or little 
bodies of fat of various sizes, swimming about. This fluid 




Holstein cow. 

is composed of water and the parts of the milk which, 
although solids when dry, are now dissolved in the water, 
just as though they were sugar or salt. The globules can- 
not be so dissolved. They are balls of pure fat, so small 
that a single drop of milk contains millions of them. In- 
deed, it is said that if a person tried to count all the bodies 
in one drop of milk, and should count at the rate of one 
hundred per minute, ten hours every day, and six days 
every week, it would take him ten years before he got 



MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE III 

through. The globules average about one ten-thousandth 
of an inch in diameter, and it would take many of them, 
placed one on top of another, to equal the thickness of 
this page we are reading. 

We next take some milk from which the cream has been 
skimmed, and magnify it. Most of the fat globules have 
disappeared, and we see one here and there. Now put the 
cream under the microscope. It seems to be made up of 
such globules. The little fat bodies are as close together 
as peas in a bag, and they look like yellow shot piled one 
upon another. Milk is rich or poor according to the num- 
ber and size of these minute bodies of fat, and that of our 
best dairy herds has the most and the largest. 

If we should keep the drop of milk long under the mi- 
croscope, we should see that the fat drops gradually come 
to the top. The milk serum, as the fluid itself outside the 
fat is called, is heavier than these globules, and therefore 
it sinks. It is altogether a matter of gravity. The heavier 
milk particles go to the bottom, the light fat ones rise to 
the top. It is the lightness of the fat particles that causes 
them to ascend and fill the upper part of the milk, making 
cream. 

Upon this same principle all kinds of milk buying and 
butter making depend. The milk serum is not pure 
water. It contains sugar and casein, as well as a little 
albumen and some mineral matter, all of which have a 
food value, as we shall see later on. It is, in fact, more 
like a sticky sirup than water, and the fat particles cannot 
make their way rapidly through it. For this reason the 
cream comes up slowly, and for the same reason, when the 
milk is shaken about, the little fat drops are loosened and 



112 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

rise more rapidly. Butter making of one kind or another 
consists of such shaking. The fat is all brought to the top 
of the milk, and so treated that the little globules are 
packed tightly together and all the milk serum is squeezed 
out. 

Until recently, cream was gathered from milk by allow- 
ing it to stand in crocks or pans in a cellar to cool, or in 
the running water of a spring house. After twelve or 
more hours most of the yellow butter fat had come to the 
top and could be skimmed off and churned. Our first 
dairy factories bought the milk and gathered the cream 
in this way. Later, the farmers, having skimmed their 
milk at home, carried the cream to the factories. Then a 
machine, called a separator, was invented, by which the 
butter fat could be taken quickly out of the milk ; and it 
is by means of such separators that cream is now gathered 
in our chief dairy districts. 

Indeed, it is said that there are more than one million 
separators in use in our country to-day. They are of all 
sizes and patterns. In the great dairy factories and on 
large farms they are moved by water, steam, or electricity ; 
and in smaller establishments by horses, oxen, and even 
by dogs, sheep, and goats. Some of the larger machines 
will take the cream from as much as five hundred gallons 
of milk in an hour, or from more than eight gallons in one 
minute. The principle of the separator is the same as that 
of cream rising and churning. The milk is put into a great 
steel bowl, held in an iron frame, and whirled round at the 
rate of from fifteen hundred to twenty-five thousand revo- 
lutions a minute. It moves so rapidly that one cannot see 
that the bowl is going at all ; so rapidly that the milk serum 



MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE 113 

which, as we have seen, is heavier than the fat, flies out to 
the walls of the bowl, and at the same time the cream comes 
to the center. The cream flows out through one pipe, and 
the skimmed milk through another. In some of the large 
dairy factories and creameries such separators are kept 
going steadily, the fresh milk pouring in from a great 
reservoir, and the cream and skimmed milk flowing out. 

Many of these establishments take the milk from the 
farmers, run it through their separators, and pay for the 
cream, the skimmed milk being given back to be carried 
home for the hogs. In other places the fresh milk is bought 
outright, and paid for according to its butter fat. The 
quality is gauged by different instruments, one of the most 
common being the Babcock milk test. This is a little bottle 
with a long, slender neck, marked in a very similar way 
to the thermometer that doctors use for taking one's 
temperature. A tablespoonful of milk is put into the 
bottle, together with a little sulphuric acid. The bottle is 
laid on its side and placed in a machine which whirls it 
around, throwing the butter fat to the neck ; so that, by 
reading the figures to which the fat rises, one can tell just 
what percentage of fat there is in the milk. 

But it is not alone the fat in the milk that we use for 
food. The milk serum, or pure skimmed milk contains sugar 
and casein, as well as albumen and some valuable salts. 
The sugar is sometimes extracted and reduced to a solid. 
It then looks and tastes like powdered white sugar, al- 
though not so sweet. You may find it for sale in almost 
any drug store. It is from the casein that we make 
curds for cheese ; and the salts are chiefly soda, potash, 
phosphates, and lime. In one hundred pounds of good 



114 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

milk there are about eighty-seven pounds of water, four 
pounds of fat, three and one third pounds of casein and 
albumen, and seven tenths of a pound of salts. 

Milk forms so large a part of our food that we ought 
to know just what it contains, and also whether we are 
getting pure milk and rich milk when we buy it. You 
may have heard of the bad boy who told the farmer that 
his best cow had an apple fast in its throat ; and how when 
the man ran out he found that his pump spout was choked 
up in that way. Milk peddlers are frequently accused of 
watering their wares. Even in those countries where the 
cows are driven from door to door, the man who peddles 
the milk sometimes has, it is alleged, a rubber bag of water 
under his coat, with a tube running down the sleeve to his 
hand, so that when he presses his arm against his side, 
the water flows in and mixes with the milk as he draws it 
from the cow. We believe most of our milkmen are 
honest, and that what they sell will stand the milk test. 
Good milk should have a yellowish white color and taste 
sweet and pure. If allowed to stand for some hours, the 
cream should rise to one eighth or one fifth of the volume 
of the milk, and when the cream and milk are poured out 
there should be no sediment, although the milk may cling 
a little to the vessel. Skimmed milk or poor milk is thinner 
than whole milk, and is of a bluish white color. 

Let us examine the different branches of our great 
dairy industry. We have produced in one year about seven 
billion gallons of milk ; of which about two billions were 
sold as milk, and one hundred and fourteen millions as 
cream. Three billion gallons of milk were made into 
butter, twenty-one million gallons were turned into cheese, 



MILK, BUT IKK, AND CHEESE 



115 



and from a large quantity condensed milk was manu- 
factured. We made so much butter that year that if it 
could have been properly distributed, it would have spread 
at least one loaf of bread for every man, woman, and 
child in the whole world. Our product of butter was four- 
teen hundred and ninety two million pounds. We made 




Milking on a model dairy farm in New Jersey. 

almost three hundred million pounds of cheese, and our 
dairy products all together were worth about six hundred 
million dollars. 

This vast industry is carried on in all parts of the 
United States, but mostly in our Central States, north and 
south. That region supports nearly two thirds of our dairy 
cows, the North Atlantic States coming next, with about 



u6 



FOODS; OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



one sixth of the total number. The chief butter states are 
Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 
New York and Wisconsin yield two thirds of our cheese. 

The most of our butter is made on the farms, but enor- 
mous quantities are produced in factories, where every- 
thing is done by 
machinery moved by 
steam or electricity. 
In factory churning, 
a hogshead or more 
of cream is turned 
into butter at a time ; 
the butter is worked 
by machinery, and 
is packed in prints, 
bricks, rolls, or in 
buckets or casks, 
for the different 
markets. 

Another impor- 
tant branch of this 
industry is cheese 
making. Cheese is 
composed of the ca- 
sein and fat, most of the other constituents of the milk 
passing off in the water or whey. Cheese is rich or poor 
according to the amount of fat it contains. In cheese 
making the milk is curdled by putting into it a piece of 
a calf's stomach, called rennet. This makes the milk 
coagulate, or turn into curds. The whey or water is now 
pressed out, leaving a solid mass, which is cured and 




Making butter by machinery. 



MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE 



117 



ripened into the different kinds of cheese. Whey is used 
for making milk sugar and for stock feeding. Some years 
ago most of our cheese was manufactured on the farms; 
now all but a small part of it is made in the many factories 
which have been established in our chief dairy states. 

We also have establishments for making the condensed 
milk which we produce for our home market and for ex- 




After the arrival of the milk train. 



port. From such milk a large part of the water has been 
evaporated, so that this milk can be kept in cans for a long 
time. It is used by babies, and also by sick people, and 
on ships and in other places where new milk cannot be 
obtained. 

The business of selling fresh milk and cream to the 
people of our towns is enormous. Each great city con- 
sumes a little ocean of milk every week ; and this must be 



Il8 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

brought daily from the farms and dairies and distributed 
from house to house. This milk comes to the cities on the 
cars, often traveling two or three hundred miles before it 
reaches the consumer. Every railroad entering New York 
or Chicago has special milk trains, in some of which are re- 
frigerator cars. Many of these trains arrive in the city at 
midnight, and the milk is kept ice cold until it can be 
loaded upon the wagons the next morning. It is shipped 
in heavy cans holding from five to ten gallons each. It is 
then put into bottles holding a quart or a pint each for de- 
livery, the bottles being sealed to prevent adulteration. In 
the dairy regions many of the towns are served by farmers 
who have milk routes and deliver from door to door. 

14. DAIRYING IN OTHER LANDS 

WE have left the United States and are traveling 
through the chief dairy countries of Europe. None 
has as many cows as our country has, but in many of 
them more butter and cheese for export are made. Our 
vast product is mostly consumed at home, although we 
sell some of it in Great Britain and elsewhere. One of 
the chief butter-exporting countries of the world is Den- 
mark. It is a low fiat land cut up by the sea, not more 
than twice as big as New Jersey ; but it has excellent 
pastures, and it rears a number of fat dairy cows. It is, 
moreover, so near England that it can send its butter 
there cheaply ; and so much of its butter is shipped to the 
English market that Denmark is sometimes called London's 
chief dairy farm. 



DAIRYING IN OTHER LANDS 



119 



The Danes are thrifty and intelligent people, and they 
realize that if one would do a good business from year to 
year, he must always furnish the best goods of his kind. 
For this reason the Danish government takes care that 
only good butter is sent out of the country ; and it has 
established dairy schools, where the people are taught 
butter making. The farmers in the different parts of 
Denmark have clubbed together and built dairy factories, 
which they manage themselves. Through such establish- 
ments they buy much of their cow feed at wholesale, 
including a great deal of our Indian corn and cotton-seed 
meal. They also join together in exporting their butter, 
and ship it in sealed cans to all parts of the world. 
Danish butter is so sweet and so well made that it is in 
demand everywhere. 

The Dutch, French, and Swiss, and also the Swedes 
and the Belgians, are good butter makers, producing not 
only enough for them- 
selves, but exporting 
much to other coun- 
tries. The Russians, 
until within recent 
years, made no butter 
for export ; but few of 
their common people 
could afford to use 
it, and their dairy 
product was small. A Belgian milk seller. 

Now, delicious butter is made in Finland and in other 
parts of European Russia, and a dairy industry has been 
established in western Siberia. The government fosters 




120 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



this industry. The Siberian butter is put up in barrels 
and taken on express trains across Russia to the Baltic 
Sea, where, in fast steamers, it is shipped to the chief 
European markets. The most of it goes to London, which 
buys several million dollars' worth of Russian butter every 
year. 




Shipping Siberian butter to London. 



Other far-away dairy lands are Australia and New 
Zealand, the butter being carried from them in cold storage 
chambers over many thousand miles of water before it 
reaches its consumers. The most of this product goes also 
to London. Indeed, the United Kingdom is the world's 
chief dairy market; and it annually imports more than 
one hundred million dollars' worth of butter and a vast 
quantity of cheese. 



DAIRYING IX OTHER LANDS 



121 



The best European butter is delicious. In many of the 
countries it is made without salt, and in France salted 
butter is looked upon with suspicion, the people thinking 
the salt is put in to hide some bad taste or other defect. 

In most parts of Europe the cattle are milked in the fields 
and the milk carried home. In Normandy women drive 
out to the pastures in little donkey carts, filled with large 




Dutch stable and house combined. 

cans. They go over the fields to where the cows are graz- 
ing, and milk them as they eat, setting down can after can 
when it is full, until all the cows are milked. In the mean- 
time, the little donkey, still harnessed to the cart, has been 
allowed to graze where he pleases. After the milking is 
finished, he is caught, and the cans are gathered up and 
carried to the milk room at the farmhouse. There the 



122 



FOODS: OR MOW THE WORLD IS FED 



milk stands until the cream rises, when the butter is made 
and put up in small rolls or mottes. On market day each 
roll is neatly wrapped in a white cloth and packed in a little 
basket with some long wheat straw to keep it from shaking 
about. In this shape it is carried to the town market, 
whence it may go to Paris or to some other large city. 
The Dutch are among the best dairy farmers of Europe. 
They blanket their cows when in the fields, to protect them 
from the cold ; in the summer they milk them out of doors, 
and in winter they sometimes take them into their houses. 

At least, the stables 
are frequently under 
the same roof as the 
rest of the dwelling, 
and are kept almost 
as clean. 

These people are 
famous cheese mak- 
ers, producing some 
varieties, such as the 
Making Edam cheese. Edam and Qouda, 

which are exported to all parts of the world. An Edam 
cheese is almost as big as a football, and is always globe 
shaped. It usually weighs a little more than three pounds. 
It is a cream cheese, yellow within, but inclosed in a 
bright crimson coat. 

One of the most common of the cheeses which we import 
from Europe is known as the Gruyere or Schweitzer, so 
called because it is made in Switzerland. The Schweitzer 
cheese is as big as a carriage wheel and from five to eight 
inches thick. It is exported to all parts of the world. 




DAIRYING IN OTHER LANDS 1 23 

Another cheese which we consume in large quantities is 
the Parmesan, which comes from Italy. It is made from 
skimmed milk, and is at its best when three or four years 
old. Parmesan cheese is very hard. It is white within, but 
its coat is so treated with charcoal and oil that it shines 
like jet. It is often grated and used as a thickening for 
soups, and with macaroni. 

There are many other cheeses, made in different parts 
of Europe, which are exported to other countries — in all 
more than one hundred and fifty different kinds. Some of 
the best of these varieties are made equally well in our 
country. Indeed, we manufacture nearly all the cheese 
we consume, and we export to other countries about fifty 
times as much as we import. 

There is one cheese district, however, that we ought to 
visit before leaving Europe. I mean the mountainous re- 
gion about Roquefort, in south-central France, where the 
sheep-milk cheese of that name is made. Roquefort stands 
far up on the side of a mountain, its buildings being at- 
tached to the cliffs. Most of the houses are only one room 
deep, but they are two, three, and four stories high, looking 
out over the valley. The mountain behind the town is full 
of caverns and passages, through which run strong cur- 
rents of air and streams of ice-cold water. It is in these 
caves that Roquefort cheese has been cured as long as any 
one can remember. The caves were known in the days of 
Charlemagne, and the peasants of this region were milking 
sheep for such cheese long before Columbus discovered 
America. Now the business is controlled by companies, 
which have added to the caves big stone vaults, through 
which the air from the mountain caverns is conducted. 



124 



FOODS: OR HOW TIIK WORLD IS FED 



It is the air, moisture, and cold water of the caverns 
which give Roquefort cheese its peculiar color and taste. 
It is white or yellow, with streaks of blue mold running 
through it, the blue mold coming out on the cheese as it 
stands in the caves. 

Hundreds of thousands of sheep are milked in this re- 
gion, and each animal gives about a quart of milk a day 
during the season. The milk sheep are of a breed called 




South American milk peddler. 

the Larzac. They are white faced, big bodied, long legged, 
and long tailed. Their tails are never cut, as are the tails 
of our sheep ; and the peasants say that the longer the 
sheep's tail, the more and the better her milk. The farmers 
take the fresh milk to the cheese factories which have been 
built throughout the surrounding country ; and the new 
cheeses are carried from them to the caves to be cured. 

In Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, and Italy, other varieties 
of cheese are made from sheep's milk. 



DAIRYING IN OTHER LANDS 125 

South America has many cattle, but they are reared 
chiefly for meat or for draft. On the Argentine pampas we 
might visit ranches on which are thousands of cows, and 
yet find the owners using butter imported in tin cans 
from Denmark or Switzerland. In many parts of South 
America cheese is made from cow's milk ; and a bit of 
cheese with guava jelly is perhaps the most common 
dessert of that continent. 

Some fine cattle are reared in our little island of Porto 
Rico. They do not know what hay is, but feed on the 
coarse grass which, on this island, is green all the year 
round. In certain islands of the West Indies milk is boiled 
before it is used ; and in some places salt is put in to keep 
it fresh. 

Crossing to Asia, we find that the dairy industry of 
that continent is small. It is most important in western 
Siberia, where the Russians make butter and cheese 
for shipment to Europe. Fast express trains carry the 
dairy products across Russia to the Baltic Sea, where ves- 
sels are waiting to take them to London. The Chinese, 
Koreans, and Japanese use comparatively little milk, and 
in their countries butter is almost unknown. In Tibet, a 
soup made of butter and tea, boiled with water into a thick 
fatty broth, is considered delicious ; and in Hindustan a 
melted butter, known as gJii, is used for cooking and eat- 
ing. In the Philippines, cows are comparatively few, and 
in many of the islands good butter and milk are scarce. 
The milk peddlers go about carrying their wares in clay 
jars, which rest upon poles over their shoulders, using a 
hollow piece of bamboo to measure it out to the customer. 

In many Asiatic countries the water buffalo, an ugly 



126 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



beast with great flat horns and hair much like bristles, 
furnishes milk from which cheese and butter are some- 
times made. This animal is somewhat like a cow. It is 
found in the Philippines, in Siam, Burma, the East Indies, 
and in Egypt. In Hindustan, Malaysia, Madagascar, 
and in parts of Africa, there are cattle with humps on their 
backs which furnish excellent milk ; and in South Africa, 
Australia, and New Zealand there are many fine dairy 
cattle, the offspring of animals imported from England. 



15. POULTRY — CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, 
AND TURKEYS 




T 



'HE food we are 
to consider to- 
day is amongst the 
most delicious eaten 
by man. How many 
of us have smacked 
our lips over a juicy 
young chicken, a fat 
goose, a duck done 
to a turn, or that 
king of the Ameri- 
can barnyard, whose 
final throne is our 
Thanksgiving table, — the great bronze turkey. Fried 
chicken with gravy, roast goose and apple sauce, roast turkey 
with cranberries, or stuffed, it may be, with oysters, — he 



POULTRY — CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS I 27 

has a poor stomach, indeed, who cannot relish any or all 
of these. 

These domestic birds are known as poultry. They are 
reared in vast numbers in all civilized countries, and there 
are few savage lands which do not have chickens and 
ducks. In the United States rearing fowls for their meat 
and eggs is a great industry, from which comes a large 
part of our national wealth. A chicken is a small thing, 
it is true; but the chickens of the United States, when 
valued at our last census, were worth many million dollars, 
and the fifteen billion eggs they produced in that year 
brought more than the product of all our mines of gold 
and silver during the same time. At a cent apiece they 
were worth one hundred and fifty million dollars. 

We had then about five million farms, upon which there 
were two hundred and thirty million chickens, more than 
eight million geese, six and one half million turkeys, and 
about five million ducks. We have more of each of these 
fowls in our country to-day. 

Suppose Uncle Sam should call them together into one 
barnyard ! What a noise they would make ! The mil- 
lions of geese would hiss at us as we walked by 
them ; the ducks would quack in such a chorus we could 
not hear each other speak ; the turkey cocks would gob- 
ble as they proudly brushed the earth with their wings, 
making a sound like a rushing wind ; the crowing of the 
vast army of roosters would be loud and shrill ; and the 
hens, in a chorus of two hundred millions, would cluck 
out the fact that they had laid almost enough eggs to give 
a dozen to every man, woman, and child upon earth, within 
the past twelve months. 



128 



FOODS: OR HOW HIE WORLD IS FED 




*»,*r 



3S 



y *~**p£^J i ^ A " 



We have, in the United 

^^jjr ^. States, eighty-seven stand- 

ard varieties of chickens, 
some of which have been 
produced here, and others 
imported from different 
parts of the world. The 
Brahmas, Langshans, and 
Cochins come from Asia, 
and are esteemed espe- 
cially for their fine meat ; 
the Dominiques, Leg- 
horns, Minorcas, and 
Black Spanish are from 
Silver Penciled Wyandotte hen. countries along the Medi- 
terranean Sea, and are especially noted as layers ; while 
the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Javas, and others are 
largely American products, and are excellent meat and 
egg producers. 

In addition to these, we 
have many other useful 
breeds of fowls which have 
been brought from Ger- 
many, Poland, France, and 
England ; and also some 
ornamental breeds which 
are reared for their beauty 
or oddity. 

The Plymouth Rocks 
seem to be our most pop- 
ular chickens for general Buff Cochin rooster. 




POULTRY — CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS 1 29 




purposes. They are hardy, grow rapidly, and are fit for 
broiling when from eight to twelve weeks old. They lay 
large eggs all the 
year round, and are 
good sitters and 
excellent mothers. 
The Wy andottes and 
Javas are also liked 
for the same reasons. 
Some of our chick- 
ens of the Asiatic 
class are very odd- 
looking. The Buff 
Cochins have long 
yellow feathers, not 
only over their bod- white Le ^ horn rooster - 

ies, but on their legs and feet ; and the Light Brahmas 
grow so large that the roosters often weigh twelve pounds 

or more. The Leghorns 
are beautiful ; and so are 
the Black Minorcas and 
Langshans. 

The ornamental varie- 
ties of chickens are so 
strange-looking that they 
would be regarded as for- 
eigners in the ordinary 
American barnyard. The 
white-crested black Polish 
fowl has a cap or brush 

English Red Game rooster. of white plumes on its 

POODS — 9 




130 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



head, although its body is covered with dark-colored 
feathers ; and the silver Polish hen has a beard. Game 
chickens, of which there are many kinds, are tall and lean, 
with short and comparatively few feathers. They are 
quarrelsome, and the roosters will fight any other roosters 
that come near them. Bantam chickens are smaller, and 
they lay small eggs. They are found in many countries, 
and there are some especially odd varieties in Java and 
Japan. 

The turkey is a native of our continent. It roamed the 
forests of North America when our forefathers came ; and 

for a long time in the 
Central and Southern 
States the pioneers had 
no trouble in shooting 
enough wild turkeys to 
supply their tables. Now 
the wild turkey has almost 
disappeared, but his de- 
scendants are reared not 
only all over our country, 
but in Europe and Asia. 
The first turkeys which 
crossed the Atlantic Ocean 
were taken by the Spaniards from Mexico to Spain. 
Later, some were carried over to England, and as early 
as 1 541 roast turkey was there regarded as one of the 
choicest of dainties. 

Ducks and geese, on the other hand, are natives of both 
the Old World and the New. We have many wild varieties 
of these fowls, although our domestic breeds of them were 




Turkey. 



POULTRY— CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS 131 

imported from Asia and Europe. We find geese and 
ducks frequently mentioned in history, and pictures of them 
are to be seen on the Egyptian monuments made many 
thousand years ago. It was the cackling of the geese in 
the Temple of Juno that once warned the Romans that 
their enemies were coming, and thus saved the Capitol; 
and, in the early ages, geese were reared in great numbers 
in western Europe and driven slowly down over the moun- 
tains to be sold in Rome for food. 

There are goose farms in Holland and in Germany to- 
day ; and in Berlin is a goose market, where tens of thou- 
sands of these fowls are sold daily throughout the year. 
The Germans eat more geese, in proportion to the number 
of people in the country, than any other nation. They are 
fond of roast goose, and especially of goose-livers, prepared 
as pate de foie gms. The demand for this dainty is so 
great that the geese are treated cruelly to supply it. It 
has been found that the liver becomes unnaturally enlarged 
if the bird is overfed, and the farmer crams food down its 
throat long after it has had all that it would otherwise eat. 
The goose is sometimes kept tied up close to the fire, in 
order that lack of exercise and heat may aid in its fattening. 

There are ten principal breeds of ducks raised in the 
United States, among which are the Pekin, Aylesbury, 
Rouen, Cayuga, and Muscovy. The Pekin is considered 
the best. It came from China, and has its name from the 
capital of that country. These birds have white feathers, 
yellow bills, and lead-colored eyes. They grow large, and 
their meat is delicious. 

Poultry is so common all over our country that any one 
can easily learn how the different kinds are reared and pre- 



132 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



pared for the market. The fowls are fed corn, oats, rye, 
or meal ; and they move about over the fields, scratching 
out worms and eating insects and other things. Some- 
times they are sold alive, and at other times the feathers 
are picked off and the birds cleaned and dressed before 




A duck farm in the United States. 



they are sold. Great numbers of young chickens are put 
away in cold storage and sold as the demand for them 
arises. 

But let us look at the poultry industry as it is carried on 
in some other parts of the world. Our Porto Rican cous- 
ins have excellent fowls ; and one of the sights of their 
cities is the poultry peddler, who goes through the streets 
with a dozen or more live chickens slung over his shoulder. 



POULTRY — CHICK KNS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS I 33 



The legs of the birds are tied together, and their loud 
squawking is mixed with his cry of the prices. The same 
man may carry several live turkeys under his arms. Each 
of these birds has its legs and wings bound tight with 
strings, and it is then wrapped about with palm bark, so 
that only the tail feathers 
and the head show out at 
the ends. 

In Java and the Philip- 
pine Islands chickens are 
often brought to the 
market in wicker crates, 
with meshes so wide that 
the birds can poke their 
heads through ; and in 
Manila turkeys are some- 
times driven through the 
streets and sold, as it 
were, on the hoof. The 
Chinese poultryman car- 
ries his live wares about 
in two big wicker baskets J avanese P oultr y seller - 

tied to the ends of a pole which rests upon his shoulder. 
The baskets are shaped like half globes, and the birds 
stand in them and thrust their heads out through the meshes. 
Other peddlers carry dried fowls, which are as common in 
China as dried beef is in America. There are packing es- 
tablishments where ducks and geese are killed, and then 
split open, cleaned, and dried in the sun. They are then 
pressed and salted, after which they will keep a long time. 
The Chinese are famous fowl raisers. They have books 




134 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

about chickens, ducks, and geese, as we have. They use 
certain foods to make their hens lay better, and they be- 
lieve that the hens which cackle the least over their eggs 
lay best. Does not this remind us of a somewhat similar 
trait in ourselves ? The boy or girl who boasts the most 
usually does the least work. 

The Chinese seldom eat eggs soft boiled, and some of 
them think that the best &gg is one which is many years 
old. They have a way of pickling and preserving eggs 
which turns them as black as jet ; and the flavor of eggs 
so preserved, like that of fruit cake, is supposed to improve 
as the months go on. 

Along the rivers of southern China there are large duck 
and goose farms, where the birds are carried in great flat 
boats from one marshy place to another, feeding on worms 
and snails, which they dig from the mud with their bills. 
The author has seen duck boats on the Pearl River near 
Canton, on each of which lived one or two thousand birds, 
of all ages and sizes. The owners of the boats were 
Chinese. They wore big hats, blue cotton gowns, and wide 
pantaloons, which flapped against their legs as they moved 
about directing their flocks. The men have such control 
over the ducks that the latter will go off and on the boats 
when called. The ducks mind quickly, too, and perhaps 
the better because the last bird on board gets a sharp 
blow from the bamboo rod of the herder. 

The Chinese were hatching chicken, duck, and goose 
eggs in incubating establishments long before we thought 
of doing so. Now, many of our farmers have great boxes 
heated by lamps, hot air, or hot water, in such a way that 
the eggs in them are kept at the same temperature they 



POULTRY — CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS I 35 

would be if under the mother hens. At the end of three 
weeks the eggs have hatched into little fowls, which pick 
their way through the shells into the world, ready to be fed 
and reared for our tables. 

In the Chinese incubating establishments the eggs are 
placed in baskets filled with heated chaff, and are kept for 
twenty-four hours in a room warmed with charcoal. They 
are then carried into another room, not so warm, put into 
baskets lined with paper, and moved about from day to 
day. Later still they are wrapped in cotton and laid upon 
shelves. The heat is so regulated in these rooms that a 
large number of birds may hatch at one time. During 
almost the same hour a thousand little bills may pick their 
way through a thousand pale blue shells, and a thousand 
soft, yellow, fluffy ducklings voice forth their first baby 
quacks. 

The duck farmers keep track of such hatchings, and are 
on hand ready to buy the little ones almost as soon as they 
are out of their shells. The little ducks are carried to the 
farms, and at first they are fed on rice water and boiled 
rice, and clear water is given them to drink. As the duck- 
lings grow older, they eat other things, and within a few 
weeks they are ready to take their ride on the duck boat 
and to forage for themselves. 

The Chinese have ingenious methods for keeping hawks 
and other birds of prey away from their fowls. The goose 
or duck herder often has a bamboo whistle fastened to the 
end of a long whip, so that it makes a shrill noise when he 
swings it through the air above his head ; and the pigeons 
of North China have similar whistles so tied to their tail 
feathers that they make a whirring sound as they fly. 



I36 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Whistles are also used by the natives of Java to protect 
their pigeons ; and both pigeons and whistles are regularly- 
sold in the fowl markets of some Javanese cities. 

Pigeons are eaten in many parts of the world. They 
are usually ranked as game birds ; but they have been 
domesticated, and in our country, as well as in some other 
places, large numbers are reared for the markets. They 
are especially delicious when they are three or four weeks 
old, at which time they are known as squabs, and bring 
high prices. 

In the earlier part of the last century, vast numbers of 
wild pigeons lived in the forests of the Mississippi Valley. 
They had extensive breeding places, and their roosts cov- 
ered large tracts of woods. The pigeons were sometimes 
so many that they broke down the branches of the trees, 
and the men living near by often went out in parties to 
shoot them. The men knocked the birds down with poles, 
stifled them by burning sulphur under the roosts, and even 
cut down the trees to bring the pigeons to the ground. 
The birds were eaten both fresh and salted, and were even 
fed to the hogs. As the country became settled, these 
wild birds disappeared. 

In addition to the fowls we have already mentioned, 
there are others of less importance. Guinea fowl are 
speckled gray birds, about the size of a small chicken, 
which are reared on many farms for their flesh and their 
eggs. Peafowl, the males of which are famous for their 
gorgeous tails, are also eaten. 

Eggs are used as food in all parts of the world, not only 
the eggs of fowls, but those of certain birds, fish, and 
even of reptiles, such as turtles. All eggs are nutritious, 



POULTRY — CHICKENS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND TURKEYS 137 

but some birds' eggs are so strong in flavor that we do not 
relish them. This is so of the eggs of the sea fowl found 
by the thousands on some of the islands of the Pacific 
Ocean. West of Hawaii are desert islands covered with 
huge eggs of birds. These eggs are collected in wheel- 
barrows by men, and are taken to the coast to be shipped 
abroad as fertilizer and for use in certain manufactures. 

Along the Amazon River countless turtles bury their 
eggs in the sand. The eggs are of about the size of a 
hen's egg, and are covered with a leathery skin instead of 
a shell. Each turtle lays more than one hundred eggs, and 
all together many millions are deposited in a season. The 
eggs are dug up by the natives and made into turtle oil 
and turtle butter. 

On the Isthmus of Panama and in some parts of South 
America the eggs of a great lizard, called the iguana, are 
greedily eaten. Among the greatest delicacies of our own 
country are terrapin eggs, served in a stew with the flesh 
of that reptile. We shall learn about fish eggs when we 
study the food products of rivers and seas. 

The only egg which holds an important place in industry 
and commerce is the hen's egg. It ranks amongst the 
chief animal products as a wealth producer and food stuff ; 
and rearing hens for their eggs is one of the profitable 
branches of farming in many parts of Europe. In Den- 
mark eggs by the millions are gathered for the markets of 
England. The Danish farmers are so particular to ship 
only fresh eggs, that the man who puts in a bad egg is 
fined more than a dollar for each offense. As soon as 
the eggs are brought in to the shippers, they are tested 
by placing them upon a tray of wire netting and holding 



I38 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

them over a bright light. If the eggs are good, the 
light will shine through them ; but if they are not, they 
appear dark or muddy. In Russia hundreds of car loads 
of geese, chickens, and eggs go over the railroads in one 
year ; and the value of these exports alone amounts to 
many million dollars. 

In the Korean markets eggs are sold by the stick. 
They are laid end to end and wrapped around with straw 



A bundle of eggs. 

so that ten or a dozen form a long bundle. A string is 
then tied about the straw between each two eggs, and they 
are thus kept from breaking. 

In our country and in some parts of Europe eggs are 
brought to the markets in wooden cases with many paste- 
board compartments, each of which holds an egg. Hun- 
dreds can be carried in this way in a box without breaking, 
and car loads so packed are sometimes sent from one end 
of our land to the other. 

Our egg industry produces an important part of our na- 
tional income. The hens of the United States earn for us 
more than one hundred and fifty million dollars every year. 
According to the last census they had laid twelve hundred 
and ninety-four million dozen eggs within the twelve months 
preceding, or enough to give every man, woman, and child 
in our country two hundred eggs and leave some to spare. 

Almost all our eggs are consumed at home, although 
in some years we send a few million dozen to England, 
Alaska, Hawaii, and elsewhere. 



WILD ANIMALS USED AS FOOD 139 



16. WILD ANIMALS USED AS FOOD 

THE flesh of wild animals has been a favorite food since 
the days of Noah's great grandson, Nimrod, who, the 
Bible tells us, was "a mighty hunter before the Lord." 
In some countries it forms the chief means of supporting 
life, and many savages depend almost entirely upon it for 
food. It was the chief food of the American Indians 
at the time our forefathers came to this country, as it 
is of the Indians in the northern parts of our continent 
to-day. There are races in the Philippines who do little 
else but hunt ; and in South America, Africa, and 
Australia are savages who depend upon the chase for 
their existence. 

Long ago game of one kind or another was to be 
found all over the world. There were birds everywhere, 
deer and bear roamed the forests, and upon our plains 
vast herds of buffalo made a noise like thunder, as 
they galloped along. As the world became settled, 
the animals disappeared ; some, like the buffalo, dying out 
almost entirely, and others, such as deer and bear, being 
crowded back into the lands that are still wild. To-day the 
chief hunting grounds of our continent are in the moun- 
tains and on the plains of the far north, near the Arctic 
Ocean. There, where it is too cold for man to live in com- 
fort, are the caribou, which compare in number with the 
buffalo of our past, and also numerous moose, elk, and 
gigantic bear. 

Some of our largest game is found in the Rockies and 
the Alleghanies ; and the finest wild fowl in the marshy 



140 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

lands along the Chesapeake Bay, the South Atlantic Coast, 
the Gulf of Mexico, and in the lower Mississippi Valley. 

One of the chief wild animals used as food is the 
deer. With the exception of Australia and South Africa, 
it is found all over the world ; and the pleasure of hunting 
it has long been sounded in song and story. Who of us 
does not remember the bold Robin Hood and his band, 
who hunted in the forest of Sherwood ; and who has not, in 
his imagination, smacked his lips over the delights of roast 
venison, as prepared by that veteran cook, Friar Tuck ? 

Even after England became well settled, the richer 
people had forests, in which they kept deer for food and 
the chase ; and there are extensive woods preserved as 
hunting grounds in Great Britain, and especially in Scot- 
land to-day. It was Lord Clare, the owner of such a for- 
est, who sent Oliver Goldsmith a haunch of venison, which 
brought out his poem describing it. 

" Thanks, my Lord, for your Venison, for a finer or fatter 
Never rang'd in a forest, or smok'd in a platter; 
The Haunch was a picture for Painters to study. 
The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy ; 
Though my stomach was sharp, I could scarce help regretting 
To spoil such a delicate picture by eating. 
I had thoughts, in my Chambers, to place it in view, 
To be shown to my friends as a piece of virtu ; 
As in some Irish houses, where things are so-so, 
One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show ; — 
But, for eating a rasher of what they take pride in, 
They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in." 

There are more than fifty varieties of deer in the world, 
and many of them are found on this continent. Our 
pioneer forefathers hunted deer almost everywhere in the 



WILD ANIMALS USED AS FOOD 



141 



woods of the eastern parts of the United States. Some 
are still to be found in the Alleghanies, in the wilder parts 
of the south, and in the west, even to the Rocky Moun- 
tains and beyond. The most common species is the white- 
tailed deer, which is somewhat smaller than the red deer 







, 



■^x^ 





\ TV 



Virginia deer. 



of Europe. We have also elk and moose, which are 
amongst the largest of the deer species. 

A full-grown elk often weighs a thousand pounds ; and 
the moose is the largest animal now hunted on our conti- 
nent. A bull moose stands six feet high or more at the 
shoulders, and its weight may exceed half a ton ; its head 
is large, and its antlers enormous. Moose meat is so 
delicious and moose hunting so delightful, that the 
animals have almost disappeared from our country, ex- 
cept in parts of the Rocky Mountain plateau, and in 
Alaska. They are still found in Montana, and in Ontario, 



142 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



British Columbia, and other wild parts of British America, 
even to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 

Our elk also are rapidly passing away. They formerly 
fed on the prairies, gathering in the autumn at the foot- 
hills of the mountains, and feeding there during the winter, 
after pawing down through the snow to get at the dry 
grass. At such times they collected together in bands, 

moving about in com- 
panies of thousands. 
Elk meat formed an 
important food of 
the Indians, and elk 
skins were often used 
to cover their lodges. 
Even the common 
small deer are not 
easy to shoot. They 
have a keen sense 
of hearing, sight, 
Bull moose. an d smell ; and the 

hunter must creep up without noise and be careful to have 
the wind blowing toward him and away from the deer. 
The animals are very fleet, and can run, trot, and gallop, at 
great speed. They are good swimmers, and they go into 
the lakes and rivers during the summer to free themselves 
of flies and other insects. Often they feed near the water 
at night. One way of hunting them is in boats after dark. 
The man puts a bright light at the prow, and hides behind 
a screen of green branches, which he builds up back of 
the light. His gun is thrust through the screen, and he 
keeps his eye along the barrel as he slowly moves through 




WILD ANIMALS USED AS FOOD 



H3 



the water, approaching the deer. The startled animal 
stands a moment in wonder, watching the light ; and the 
hunter aims at his shining eyes, which catch its rays, and 
thus kills him. 

In Louisiana deer are often hunted with hounds, and in 
the Alleghanies they are " hounded," or hunted, upon foot. 
In the Philippine Islands they are trapped by the Negritos 
with loops of rattan, so tied to the branches which hang 
over their paths, that the deer are caught by their horns. 
The loops have 
slip nooses which 
tighten as the ani- 
mals pull away, and 
the little black men 
shoot them with 
bows and arrows 
before they can get 
loose. 

Until the Great 
Plains beyond the 
Mississippi River were settled by white men, there was one 
huge animal which supplied more food than any other. It 
was a shaggy beast with an enormous head crowned with 
short black horns, a woolly brown fur, and a tail and hoofs 
somewhat like a cow. This animal fed upon the grass of 
the prairies, and its meat was delicious. It was so large 
that a bull sometimes weighed almost a ton, and a cow 
twelve hundred pounds or more. This was the American 
bison or "buffalo." 

Such an animal, we can easily see, would supply large 
quantities of food ; and when we learn that it swarmed in 




American bison. 



144 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

countless numbers over the prairies, we can realize how 
much it meant to the Indians. As long as the buffalo 
lasted, most of the red men were able to retain their in- 
dependence. Its meat was their principal food. They 
dried the beef in the sun, and powdered it into pemmican, 
in which shape it could be kept for months. 

It is difficult to comprehend the vast extent of this 
wild meat supply of the past. The buffaloes have dis- 
appeared from the plains, and only a few hundred of 
them are now to be found in our government parks and in 
some of our zoological gardens. At one time they roamed 
over our continent from Mexico to as far north as the 
Great Slave Lake, and from the Rockies to the Alleghanies. 
There were scattered herds on the Rocky Mountain 
plateau, and some in Pennsylvania and in- New York, and 
even near the place where Washington City now stands. 

These animals moved about in vast herds. As late as 
forty or fifty years ago, they fed by the millions on the Great 
Plains. In 1868 a traveler upon the Union Pacific Rail- 
road wrote that his train passed through a buffalo herd 
one hundred and twenty miles long. George Catlin, an 
explorer, who spent the greater part of his life on our 
western plains, before the destruction of the buffalo, says 
that these animals were then so many that their bellowing 
sounded like thunder, and that the Indians killed them by 
hundreds of thousands for their skins, which they sold to 
the white traders for a pittance. 

One would not think that such immense herds could be 
destroyed in a few years ; but buffaloes are dull and stupid 
in many ways, and they easily became the prey of the 
hunters. White men shot them for food. Thousands of 



WILD ANIMALS USED AS FOOD 1 45 

them were killed for their tongues, or for a single slice 
from the hump. The rest of the meat often went to waste. 
When sold fresh it brought only two or three cents a 
pound. In 1873 one western railroad alone carried a 
quarter of a million buffalo robes ; and more than fifteen 
hundred thousand pounds of buffalo hides were sold every 
year. 

Bear meat was another game food in pioneer days, and 
it is still eaten in parts of the Rocky Mountains and in 
Alaska. Bears are 
native to the wilder 
parts of Europe, Asia, 
North America, and 
the Andean region 
of South America. 
They are not found 
in Australia, nor in 
Africa, except in 
the Atlas Mountains. 

These animals are Black bear - 

bulky and clumsy; but they can move rapidly, neverthe- 
less, and are dangerous when attacked. They will stand 
upon their hind feet and, seizing their enemy in their 
great arms, will give him a crushing hug, while they tear 
away his flesh with their teeth. They are especially fond 
of fish, fruit, berries, grass, vegetables, insects, and honey. 
They usually live in pairs, each family having its home in 
a cave or dense thicket, whence they go out either by day 
or by night to forage for food. 

Africa is the chief continent where big game now thrives. 
It is a land of elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, 




I46 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

giraffes, zebras, and countless antelopes. It also has lions, 
leopards, gorillas, and other wild animals which man does 
not use for food. 

Elephant meat is much prized by the natives, as is also 
the meat of the rhinoceros and of the hippopotamus. 
Almost every bit of these animals is eaten, a whole tribe 




African elephant. 

having a feast after a killing. The best parts of the ele- 
phant are its trunk, feet, and fat, and of these parts, the feet 
are considered the most delicious. They are cooked in an 
odd way. A hole is dug in the ground and lined with 
stones. A fire is then built, and when the stones are red- 
hot, the ashes and coals are removed and the great foot, 
having been washed, is placed in it. A few sticks are now 
laid over the top and green leaves spread upon them, and 



RABBITS, SQUIRRELS, AND CAME BIRDS 147 

last comes a thick coating of earth, making a tight cover- 
ing to this curious bake oven. The foot is left in for 
several hours, and becomes thoroughly cooked. If the 
elephant is young, the meat of the foot is so tender that it 
can be taken up with a spoon. 

Giraffes and zebras are also eaten by the Africans, and 
antelopes are hunted for food by the whites as well as the 
natives. Many European sportsmen go to Africa for the 
purpose of killing the big game which there abounds. 



aXKc 



17. RABBITS, SQUIRRELS, AND GAME BIRDS 

WILD birds, rabbits, and squirrels are amongst the 
most delicious of foods. Roast canvasback duck, 
broiled quail on toast, squirrel pie, and young rabbit stew 
— we smack our lips as we think of them. We have heard 
their praises sung since we were infants, beginning with the 
rabbit which papa went to hunt for little " Bye O Baby 
Bunting," and the " Dainty Dish set before the King," 
containing four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. 

Rabbits are trapped and hunted in many parts of our 
country. Near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains they 
increase so rapidly that the people turn out in great parties 
and drive them from a wide extent of territory into one 
place, where they kill them by thousands. In Australia 
the rabbits descended from a few pairs imported from Eng- 
land have so multiplied that they are now a great pest. 
There are many millions of these little animals, and, do 
what they will, the people cannot destroy them. They are 



148 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



shot, trapped, and poisoned, but they number more every 
year ; so that now the farmers have built woven wire 
fences about the pastures to keep them out, and thus pre- 
serve the grass for the stock. In New Zealand similar 
conditions exist, and many thousand wild rabbits are an- 
nually killed there, in order that their carcasses may be 




A rabbit drive in the west. 



shipped to England. The rabbits are prepared in the 
frozen meat factories, and are exported, with the fur on, 
across the oceans in cold storage chambers. 

Hares are like rabbits, only larger. They are found all 
over Europe, excepting in Ireland, Scandinavia, and north- 
ern Russia. Canada has a species of polar hare, and we 
have large hares on our western plains known as jack-rab- 



RABBITS, SQUIRRELS, AND GAME BIRDS 



149 



bits. These animals are famous for their speed. They 
leap over the earth in high bounds, covering as much as 
fifteen feet at one jump. Like rabbits, they increase rap- 
idly, and the farmers in certain sections of our country 
make hare-proof fences to keep them out of the fields and 
orchards. The people in these sections sometimes have 
what is called a " drive." All the men, women, and chil- 
dren gather in a circle about a square mile or more of 
space, and drive the hares into an enclosure, where they 
are slaughtered with clubs. 

Squirrels are hunted in many parts of the United States. 
They are found all over the world, except in Australia, and 
most abundantly in India 
and southern Asia. They 
belong to the same ani- 
mal family as rats ; but 
they live in the woods, 
some making their nests 
in the ground, and others 
in hollow trees. 

There are a great va- 
riety of squirrels. Some Gray squirreL 
are gray, some reddish brown, and some black ; some 
kinds are not bigger than a mouse, and others are as 
large as a kitten. The most common squirrel in our 
country is the red squirrel, which is only eight inches long. 
This little animal is found almost everywhere in our moun- 
tains. It lives in the trees and subsists largely upon nuts, 
although it often eats grain, birds' eggs, young birds, and 
even fruit. The fox squirrel lives east of the Great Plains 
and in the Southern States. It is quite large, being often 





- ' vl""' 




&&*&& 




' **- 



150 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

a foot or more long. Its color ranges from gray to jet 
black, and it has a beautiful bushy tail, which is somewhat 
longer than its head and body. 

The gray squirrel is one of the chief game animals of 
New England and the North Central States. There is a 
gray squirrel in California which is noted for its large size 
and its black tail ; while in the southwestern parts of the 
United States are chestnut-backed gray squirrels which 
have tufts on their ears. All these little animals are killed 
with rifles and shotguns ; but the rifle is preferred, as it 
carries but one ball, the hunter trying to shoot the squirrel 
in the head, so as not to destroy the meat. 

Let us now take a look at some of our big feathered 
game. We have many kinds, the largest of which is the 
wild turkey. This is much like the tame bird of the same 
name, and, indeed, it is the parent of the domestic turkey 
throughout the world. Wild turkeys were once found in 
all parts of our country, but they have now disappeared, 
except in the Alleghany Mountains and in the wild lands 
of the south and the west. They are hunted with rifles, 
the sportsman often calling them to him with a whistle 
made of the wing bone of the bird. The call used is an imi- 
tation of that of the wild turkey gobbler. After the man 
gobbles a time or so, any wild male turkey that may be 
near will answer, and, perhaps, lead his flock toward the 
hunter. Turkeys always go about in flocks, and they have 
fixed roosting places. Men hide near the roosts, and shoot 
the birds by the light of the moon. 

Other large game birds common to North America are 
wild geese and ducks, many of which spend the summer 
in the cold lands of the north and come south in our au- 



RABBITS, SQUIRRELS, AND GAME BIRDS 151 

tumn, going on farther toward the Equator as the streams 
and lakes freeze. The Canadian goose, which is the most 
common, is found in flocks of thousands about Hudson 
Bay, and even farther north. It forms a large part of the 
food supply of the Indians and the white fur traders who 
inhabit those regions. The geese fly southward in such 
numbers that a flock often looks like a great white sheet 
spread out over the sky. They feed about our lakes and 









1? 


*}Lm & i' 


BBi^I'ljfU' 'Jjfri-i' .'r.'Jff 















Shooting wild ducks. 

are attracted by means of decoys, or imitation geese made 
of wood or iron, placed upon the water. The hunters imi- 
tate the call of the geese and thus get them to light or to 
stop a moment in their flight. 

We have wild ducks along our rivers and lakes, and also 
in the marshy lands of the seacoast, and especially in places 
like Chesapeake Bay. Shooting ducks is great sport. 
The birds are wary, and the hunters lie down in boxes 



152 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

or boats in the marshes, and wait for them to come near. 
Sometimes the men have blinds or screens of reeds, behind 
which they lie until the birds come near enough to be 
shot. They also use decoys painted to look like the living 
ducks that frequent the flats. These little wooden birds 
float upon the water not far from the blinds ; and when 
the live ducks come up to make friends with them, bang 
goes the gun, and the ducks are food for our tables. 

The most famous of all these ducks is the canvasback, 
a handsome fowl with a head of dark chestnut red, a 
white back, and a black bill and breast. This duck is 
especially delicious after feeding upon the wild celery of 
the Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes called the king of 
American ducks, and it commands the highest price in the 
market. Another delicious duck is the redhead, which 
may be shot along the bays of our Atlantic Coast and also 
about the Great Lakes and in Canada. Other well-known 
ducks are the teal and mallard, found on our rivers. 

Have you ever eaten a prairie chicken ? Its flesh is 
excellent, and it graces the tables of many families in 
our Western States. It is also hunted in Canada. These 
birds are almost as large as some varieties of the domestic 
chicken. They live in the open country, building their 
nests on the ground and laying twelve or fifteen eggs be- 
fore setting. Toward winter they gather in vast flocks 
and may sometimes be seen, even in the half-settled coun- 
try, seated on the fences and about the haystacks. They 
are hunted with dogs and are not difficult to shoot. They 
are a kind of grouse, belonging to a bird family of many 
varieties, which are found in different parts of the world. 

Among the most common of our smaller game birds 



FISH IN GENERAL I 53 

is the partridge, sometimes known as the quail. This is 
found both in Europe and in our country. It is also called 
the bobwhite, because its whistle sounds like those words. 

The bobwhites live in the grass and the bushes, going 
about in flocks which make a great whirring noise as they 
fly. Hunters scare up the birds with dogs and shoot them 
as they rise. A favorite way of serving quail is upon 
toast, after broiling them over the coals ; and a fat young 
bird so cooked is a dish for a king. 

The bobolinks, or reedbirds, are killed by thousands 
every autumn in the marshes near and along the coasts 
of our South Atlantic States. They are little birds, one 
being not much more than a mouthful when cooked, but 
their flesh is so delicious that great numbers of them are 
shipped to the northern markets. Snipe are also shot in 
the marshes. We have other game birds of less value in 
different parts of our country. 



oXKc 



18. FISH IN GENERAL 

EVER since our forefathers came to America, fish 
has formed one of our principal foods. When the 
Pilgrims went to King James for their charter, they told 
him they wanted to go to the New World " to worship 
God and catch fish." They did both, and to-day New 
England fishermen supply the most of the sea food of our 
Eastern States. They fish not only along our own coast, 
but they sail to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and 
elsewhere to ply their trade. 



154 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



The New Englanders, however, are by no means our 
only fishermen. In this country almost a quarter of a 
million people are engaged in fishing. This industry is 
carried on all along the Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts, 
upon the Great Lakes, upon the Mississippi River and its 
tributaries, and along the shores of southern Alaska. 




A New England fisherman. 



Many thousand vessels are required for this work ; and the 
product annually sells for more than fifty million dollars. 
Our fish catch amounts to two thousand million pounds 
in one year. If it were loaded upon wagons, at a ton to 
the wagon, each hauled by two mules, just about all the 
mules in the United States would be required to drag 
the load. 



FISH IN GENERAL I 55 

Of this quantity, the larger part comes from our New 
England and Middle Atlantic Coasts. About one tenth 
comes from the South Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mex- 
ico, and an equal amount from the coast streams and the 
waters of the Pacific Ocean. We annually catch millions 
of pounds of salmon in Alaska and about one hundred 
million pounds of white and other fish in the Great Lakes. 

The fishing industry of Canada is enormous, and so is 
that of the United Kingdom, Norway, and other European 
countries, as well as of Japan, China, and many other parts 
of the world. The oceans, lakes, and rivers greatly aid in 
the support of man ; and their supplies of food seem to be 
inexhaustible. Take the herring. It is one of the small- 
est of our commercial fishes, but, nevertheless, fifteen 
hundred million pounds of it are eaten in one year. 
Twenty-five million pounds of cod are annually caught to 
supply the demand for dried codfish alone. 

We can hardly conceive of the immense quantity of food 
man annually takes from the lakes, rivers, and seas ; and 
one might think that in time the fish would all be caught, 
and the favorite varieties at least disappear, as have the 
buffalo and some other species of game. 

It is cheering to know that there is no danger of this 
taking place. As we shall see further on, our government 
is always planting in our waters such fishes as are likely 
to give out; and scientists tell us the world's supply of 
fish is so enormous that there will probably be enough 
for all time to come. Professor Huxley, for instance, 
describes the vast shoals of cod found off the shores of 
Norway which the natives call cod mountains. He says 
the fish move along in great masses, often from one hun- 



156 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

dred and twenty to one hundred and sixty feet deep ; and 
he estimates that one such shoal a mile square contains 
about one hundred and twenty million cod, or enough to 
give one fish to every man, woman, and child in our land, 
and leave millions to spare. 

Fish increase rapidly. They yield eggs in such quanti- 
ties as would hush the cackle of the proudest hen, could 
she but know it. Bertram, in his book " The Harvest of 
the Sea," says that he counted seven million eggs in the 
roe of one sturgeon, and that the codfish lays more than 
three million eggs at a time. Various other varieties of 
fish lay more or less, but every single fish produces so 
many thousand eggs that we might think that the waters 
would soon be solid fish. And so they would be, in some 
places, were it not that the fish eat each other, the larger 
varieties feeding upon the smaller ; and that birds, reptiles, 
and men are all fond of this food and use every means in 
their power to get it. 

Let us visit some of our great fishing grounds and 
observe how these finny creatures are caught and prepared 
for the markets. We shall first sail along the Atlantic 
Coast to watch them catching cod, halibut, mackerel, and 
herring, which are found in great numbers on the Banks, 
or shoal waters, of the North Atlantic- Ocean. Fishermen 
go out in schooners and other boats, with their nets and 
lines, often remaining away from home for months at a 
time. More than seven thousand American fishermen are 
engaged in cod fishing alone, and their catch annually 
sells for several million dollars. The Canadians get fully 
as many, and altogether about twenty million dollars' worth 
of cod are marketed in a single year. 



FISH IN* GENERAL 



157 



Cod are found in the Atlantic as far south as Cape 
Hatteras and as far north as the Arctic Ocean. In the 
Pacific they swim along the shores of Oregon, Washing- 
ton, and British Columbia, and also of Japan and southern 
Alaska. The most of our catch comes from the North 
Atlantic and especially from the banks off Newfound- 




Cod fishing with lines and trawls. 

land and New England. According to the laws of 
nations, the people of any country have the sole right 
to fish within three miles of its shores, but outside that 
limit the sea is free to all ; and therefore fishermen 
from all parts of the world can come to any good fish- 
ing grounds that are three miles beyond the coast. Men 
from many different countries fish along the Grand 
Banks of Newfoundland, which have been long famous 
for their cod. 

Every spring fishing schooners start out from Glouces- 
ter, Boston, or other New England ports for the Grand 



i 5 8 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



Banks. They are well supplied with food for the men 
and salt for curing the fish as fast as they are taken. The 
boats are good sailers, the captains are well-seasoned ship- 
masters, and the crews are experienced fishermen. The 
men are not hired by the day ; but they usually work to- 
gether as partners, each taking his share when the catch 




A fishing schooner. 

is sold after they return home. The fishermen usually 
leave in the latter part of May or June and spend several 
months getting their cargo. They anchor their schooner 
on some good feeding ground and then go out in small 
boats to fish with lines and trawls. 

Cod are deep sea feeders. They eat all sorts of marine 
animals, including oysters, lobsters, crabs, and fish ; and 



FISH IN GENERAL 



159 



they delight in moving along the bottom of the sea. Those 
caught for the market are usually taken at depths of 
twenty, thirty, or forty fathoms, the men of a crew often 
filling a boat at one fishing. At the close of each day the 
fishermen all come back to the schooner ; the boats with 
the fish in them are slung upon deck, and the cod are 




Salting house in Newfoundland. 



cleaned, salted, and stored away in the hold. There is 
great rivalry amongst the crew as to which boat shall catch 
the most fish, and the life is dangerous and interesting. If 
you would know more about it, I advise you to read 
Rudyard Kipling's boy story, " Captains Courageous," in 
which Harvey, the son of a millionaire, who has always 



i6o 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



had his every wish gratified, falls into the sea from the 
deck of an ocean steamer, while crossing the Grand Banks, 
and is picked up by a fishing schooner. The captain dis- 
believes his story of a rich father, and Harvey is forced 
to work with the men. He helps to clean the cod, to 
salt them, and to pack them away in the hold. He 




Drying cod at St. John's, Newfoundland. 



resists at first, but he soon learns to obey, and the hard 
work and many admirable qualities of the fishermen teach 
him to respect labor and make a man of him. 

After the fish are brought home they are placed in hogs- 
heads filled with brine and are allowed to soak until the 
time comes for curing them. The cod are then taken out 



FISH IN GENERAL l6l 

and dried in the sun. They are now ready to be packed 
and shipped to different parts of our own and other 
countries as salted cod, in which shape we may find them 
in almost any grocery store. We prepare enough dried cod- 
fish every year to give one pound to every man, woman, 
and child in the United States ; and we export large quan- 
tities to other countries. The chief markets for this fish 
are France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Brazil. 

Two other sea fishes exported to all parts of the country 
are mackerel and halibut. Halibut are found in all northern 
seas, and our fishermen catch them on the Grand Banks of 
Newfoundland and even along the coasts of Iceland and 
Greenland. Some are brought to the markets packed in 
ice, and others are cured by smoking. 

The mackerel is one of the most valuable of the Atlantic 
food fishes ; and catching it is an important industry in 
the United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, and our own coun- 
try. These fish swim about in schools so large that if all 
were caught, one big school would fill a million barrels. 
Mackerel like to wander. They go into the deep sea in 
the winter and return to the shores in the spring, swimming 
northward as the weather grows warmer. 

Most of our mackerel fishermen start out from Glouces- 
ter, Massachusetts, sailing south in the early spring, to 
meet the fish when they first appear off the coasts of the 
Southern and Middle States. The catch is then landed 
fresh in New York or Philadelphia. Later they go north- 
ward to southern Nova Scotia and follow the schools on 
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Many of the best fishing 
vessels of the United States are engaged in catching mack- 
erel ; and in some years one thousand boats have been so 



1 62 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

employed. Mackerel are often salted and sold in kegs 
throughout the country. A bit of salt mackerel, boiled or 
broiled, is delicious for breakfast, and the Spanish mackerel 
is one of our choicest food fishes when fresh from the sea. 

" Herring, herring, two for a penny, 
Ar 1 nt you ashamed to eat so many ? " 

This is a common cry among the children of England 
and also of parts of the United States. Herring are 
eaten annually throughout the civilized world to the extent 
of millions of barrels. Enough are caught in one year to 
supply one pound to every man, woman, and child upon 
earth. Most of these fish are taken in the- North Sea, 
although some are caught in our waters. 

Herrings are sold in the markets — fresh, pickled, and 
smoked ; about twenty-five million are annually frozen, 
and a large number are used as bait for cod. In Maine 
the young ones are extensively canned as sardines, and 
they are said to taste quite as well as the sardines of Eu- 
rope, which come chiefly from the Mediterranean Sea and 
the Bay of Biscay. 

Sardines are usually put up with olive oil, in flat cans, 
the little fish being laid so close together that a common 
expression for crowding or packing has come to be " as 
tight as sardines in a box." 

In addition to the varieties already mentioned, there 
are many other sea fish which regularly appear in our 
markets. Among the most important are smelts, had- 
docks, sea bass, sheepshead, tautogs, bluefish, and shad. 
The two latter are caught in large quantities all along 
the Atlantic Coast, the shad being taken when they come 
into the sea from the streams to lay their eggs. 



SALMON 163 

Shad is one of the sweetest of all sea foods. Its flesh 
is rich and its eggs are considered a delicacy ; but it has 
so many bones that it must be carefully eaten. A favorite 
way of cooking it is to split it open, clean it, and nail it to 
a hickory plank. The plank is then stood upon end in 
front of burning coals, and the shad broiled. It is now 
served upon the charred wood as planked shad. It 
makes our mouths water to think of it. 



j^c 



19. SALMON 

IN 1867, when our government bought Alaska from Rus- 
sia for seven million two hundred thousand dollars, and 
thereby added almost one fifth as much land as we then 
had to the territory of the United States, the purchase was 
criticised as a shameful waste of the public money. We 
had bought, so the fault-finders said, a barren desert of 
snow and ice in an Arctic region, incapable of cultivation, 
whose only treasures were the seals that might be killed 
along its coasts. The government was charged with hav- 
ing squandered the money of the people, and it was said 
that shrewd Russia was laughing in her sleeve over our 
simplicity. 

It may be that Russia did laugh at that time ; but, if so, 
she is probably sighing now ; for Alaska has since paid us 
back her purchase price many times over in salmon alone, 
to say nothing of millions of dollars' worth of whales, furs, 
and gold. In 1902 we sold Alaskan salmon to the amount 
of more than twelve million dollars ; and the salmon caught 



164 FOODS : OR HOW T11F WORLD IS FED 

in one year in the Alaskan streams often bring more than 
the sum we paid for the whole country. 

The salmon is one of the most profitable of our food 
fishes. It is caught all along the Pacific Coast from the 
Gulf of Monterey to Alaska, also in the Arctic streams of 
that territory, including the mighty Yukon. Another 
variety of salmon is found in the rivers which flow into the 
northern Atlantic Ocean. Hendrick Hudson reported 
that he saw salmon in the Hudson River when he first ex- 
plored it in 1609; and the fish is caught to-day in the 
waters of Maine and eastern Canada and also in some 
streams of northern Europe and eastern Asia. 

The most important of all salmon are those of the Pa- 
cific Coast. They form one of the chief food fishes of 
commerce ; they are eaten almost everywhere in our coun- 
try, and are also exported to England and other parts of 
Europe, to China, Japan, India, and the Philippine Islands, 
and even to Australia and Africa. 

Many million dollars are invested in catching and can- 
ning salmon. There are some towns, such as Astoria, near 
the mouth of the Columbia River, where the people do 
little else ; there are others, like Bellingham on Puget Sound, 
where the canning houses employ hundreds of hands ; and 
there are single factories where as many as half a million 
cans of fish are put up in one day. From the Columbia 
River alone, up to the beginning of this century, seventy- 
five million dollars' worth of these fish had been exported. 
Vast quantities are annually taken from Puget Sound; and, 
as we have seen, the product of Alaska is enormous. 

There are several species of these Pacific Coast salmon, 
some large and some comparatively small. The quinnat, 



SALMON 



I6 5 



or chinook, is the king of all salmon. In the Yukon River 

it sometimes weighs as much as one hundred pounds, and 

in the Columbia River eighty pounds or more. James G. 

Blaine, our famous American statesman, once received a 

present of an eighty-pound chinook from his Oregon 

friends. The great fish was cooked 

whole, and so served on his dinner 

table. When we remember that 

many a good sized boy of ten does 

not weigh eighty pounds, we can 

imagine that the platter must have 

been enormous, and that it took more 

than one waiter to bring that fish in 

from the kitchen. 

Such large salmon are uncommon. 
The average chinook caught in the 
Columbia for export weighs only 
about twenty-two pounds, while that 
of the Sacramento River weighs 
less. All other species of salmon 
are smaller, some, such as the sock eye, weighing five, 
six, or seven pounds, according to the season. 

But let us take a flying trip along the Pacific Coast and 
see something of this great industry. If we would under- 
stand it, we must know the life history and habits of this 
king of fishes, for it is upon them that the industry is 
founded. 

Suppose we start with the baby salmon in one of the icy 
streams, fed by the snows of the mountains, which flow 
into the Columbia. Here the salmon is born ; and it spends 
its babyhood and a part of its childhood moving down with 




Chinook, the king of 
salmon. 



l66 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

the waters to the sea, feeding as it goes. It is quite small 
when it reaches the ocean, but it increases in size from 
year to year until about four years later, when it is fat and 
plump and ready to start back up the very same stream it 
came down. At this time the salmon has solid flesh, it is 
of a pale red color, and it goes forth in the pride of its 
strength. It eats but little after leaving the ocean, but 
devotes itself entirely to making its way back to its birth- 
place. If one could have the perseverance and the 
courage that the fish shows on this journey, he could 
conquer almost any obstacle that might come in his way. 
It swims steadily onward, making several miles a day, often 
spending months on the way. It fights against the current, 
climbs the rapids, jumps over the shallows, often bruising 
itself sadly upon the rocks, but going on and on until it 
reaches the place where it was born. A male and a female 
usually go together ; and when they have reached the right 
spot, they dig a little hole in the gravel of the bed of the 
stream, and the female there lays her eggs. 

After this the fish usually sicken and die ; they very 
seldom get back to the ocean. Their eggs soon hatch 
into minnows, which feed awhile, just as their parents did 
when they were little, and, as they grow stronger, start 
down the river on their voyage to their ocean home. 

This is the story of one pair of fish, but it is also the 
story of millions upon millions. The salmon come up 
in vast shoals or schools, sometimes crowding the streams 
so that they look like solid fish. In Puget Sound, at 
certain times of the year, the fish blanket the water in 
places, so that, with a small boat, one can row several 
miles through fish. 



SALMON 



167 



As the salmon take the same course year after year, the 
fishermen know just about when and where to expect them. 
In Puget Sound great cagelike nets are sunk off the 
shores of the islands. The nets wind about like the mazes 
of Rosamond's bower ; and, as they are set directly in the 
course of the fish that are journeying to the rivers, the latter 



fi 




n||agngBBMHHHK -~ 


aT j <w 


I 




... 










cSSafl 



Salmon fishing with nets in Puget Sound. 



become entangled in the nets. The salmon swim from 
one enclosure to another until at last they fall into a great 
trap walled with netting, which will hold thirty or forty 
thousand salmon at one time. When the trap is full, the 
fish are turned out into big scows by lifting up one end 
of the net, or they are ladled out with dip nets which are 
sometimes worked by a steam engine. As many as ninety 



1 68 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



thousand salmon have been caught at once in such a trap. 
When the scows are full, they are towed by steam tugs to 
the canneries. 

In the rivers salmon are caught with traps, nets, and 
water wheels. The Indians spear them and also catch them 
in dip nets, as they jump up in surmounting the rapids. 
Gill nets, often a quarter of a mile long, are stretched 
across the course near the mouth of a river. The salmon 




Fish wheel in the Columbia River. 



push their heads through the meshes, and are caught by 
the gills as they attempt to pull out. 

Far up the Columbia River, where the current is swift, 
great fish wheels with wire nets attached to their rims are 
fastened to scows in such a way that the salmon, swimming 
up, strike the nets ; and the wheel, turned by the river, 
raises them into the air and pours them into the boat. 
More than thirteen thousand salmon have been caught in 
this way by a single wheel in one day ; and all the fisherman 



SALMON 



I69 



did was to sit down and watch the fish dropping by twos 
and threes into his boat. Sometimes so many fish have 
been taken by a wheel, that the boat has become over- 
loaded and sunk. Boats used for this purpose hold five or 
six thousand large fish. 

Canning salmon is almost as interesting as catching 
them. The work is carried on by very similar methods at 




Sock eye salmon ready for the cannery. 



the great establishments at Astoria, on Puget Sound, and 
in Alaska. The buildings are usually at the water's edge, 
so that the vessels may come alongside and deliver the fish, 
or take away the packed product. Most of the factories are 
large, roomy, one-story frame structures, with lofts for stor- 
age and, in some cases, for the manufacture of cans. In the 



170 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

more modern establishments much of the work is done by 
machinery. The salmon are pitched into conveyors and 
carried to the killing room, which is kept clean by flood- 
ing and scrubbing it every night with salt water. The fish 
are first placed upon long tables, about which stand a score 
or more Chinese, who cut off the fins, heads, and tails, 
and throw the bodies upon an endless rubber belt which 
carries them to the cleaning machines. Here the scales 
are taken off, the entrails removed, and the fish washed and 
dressed at the rate of forty-five per minute. The fish is 
held by automatic clamps, which press its body against a 
sharp knife that splits it open. A series of scrapers and 
brushes, aided by a stream of water, washes out the in- 
side and finally dumps it into a tank of running water. It 
next goes through a series of rapidly moving circular 
knives which cut it up into pieces of just the size used for 
the cans. The cuts are now carried to long tables, where 
they are packed by young women. The filled cans are 
cooked slightly by steam and then capped and soldered 
and cooked again. During the second cooking a little 
hole is made with a steel point in each can to let the vapor 
and air escape. After this the holes are soldered up and 
the cans run into another steam chamber, which thoroughly 
cooks the salmon and softens the bones. The cans are 
now ready to be varnished and labeled and put up for 
shipment. They are packed in wooden cases and in this 
shape find their way to grocers all over the world. 

The Chinese and Japanese who clean the salmon come 
by thousands from San Francisco and other cities for the 
fish season, a large number of them being employed in 
Alaska. 



OYSTERS 171 



20. OYSTERS 

" The herring loves the open sea, 
The mackerel loves the wind ; 
But the oyster loves the quiet tide, 
For it comes of a gentle kind. 11 

THIS verse of an old song gives us one of the character- 
istics of a sea food which has delighted man's palate 
for ages. The Romans, who were noted for their dainty 
viands, served oysters at their feasts. They caught them 
in the Mediterranean and even imported them from Great 
Britain after Caesar conquered that country. Sallust, a 
Latin writer who lived a little before Christ, wrote thus of 
our English ancestors: "The poor Britons — there is 
some good in them after all; they produce an oyster." 

In the Middle Ages oysters were eaten in different 
parts of Europe ; and since then poets have often sung 
their praises. Shakespeare probably knew them well, for 
he uses the word "oyster" several times in his plays ; as, for 
instance, in " The Merry Wives of Windsor," where Pistol, 
upon Falstaff's telling him he will not lend him a penny, 

replies : — 

" Why, then, the world's my oyster, 
Which I with sword will open. 11 

To-day oysters are eaten in great quantities in Europe 
and in North America, Asia, and Australia. The city of 
London alone consumes more than a billion raw oysters 
every year. The United States produces so many that we 
could annually give one dozen to every man, woman, and 
child in the whole world, and have some to spare. 



172 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

When our forefathers landed in America they found 
oysters in abundance. They were probably eaten ages ago 
by the Indians ; for vast quantities of oyster shells have 
been discovered in ancient Indian shell heaps. Oyster 
fishing is now carried on all along our eastern coast from 
Florida to Massachusetts, and also in the Gulf of Mexico, 
the Gulf of California, in San Francisco Bay, and in the 
waters off Oregon and Washington. Our most important 
fisheries are in Chesapeake Bay, mainly upon natural beds, 
and in Long Island Sound, where the oysters have been 
planted by sowing their eggs. 

It seems strange to think of rearing oysters like chick- 
ens, or of raising them by planting the eggs as seed and 
reaping the crop after a certain number of years ; but this 
is the custom in most of the oyster-producing parts of 
Europe and of our country. The French are famous 
oyster farmers. Upon one oyster bed of less than five 
hundred acres in France, a million dollars' worth of oysters 
have been raised. There are also some fine oyster farms 
in England. Near the town of Whitestable not far from 
London, there are twenty-seven square miles of them, 
which yield an annual product of more than a million 
dollars. 

Until within a few years, almost all our oysters came from 
natural beds. Now the government has planted the eggs 
of the Chesapeake oyster along the shores of our Pacific 
States, as well as in Chesapeake Bay and at other places 
upon our Atlantic Coast ; and we are growing many 
oysters in this way. Indeed, it is estimated, that if all the 
oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay were properly planted and 
cultivated, they might produce many times the amount 



OYSTERS 173 

they now do and bring in a product of six hundred million 
dollars a year. 

Our consumption of oysters is so great, and their other 
enemies, such as fish, sea worms, barnacles, and little snale- 
like creatures known as drills, are so many, that it is a 
wonder they have not long since disappeared. The drill 
has a rasping tongue, with which it makes a tiny hole in 
the shell and thus extracts the soft parts ; while the oyster- 
boring sponge consumes the shells, until they are like a 
honeycomb and may be crumbled to powder with the 
fingers. Oysters are also eaten by the starfish, which 
sometimes sweep across the beds in large schools, devour- 
ing the oysters in their path. 

Nevertheless, even if man did not plant it, the oyster 
would increase rapidly enough to keep from becoming ex- 
tinct. If it had no enemies at all and its every egg should 
become a full-grown oyster, the shores of all the oceans 
could hardly contain the product at the end of a few hun- 
dred years. A single Chesapeake Bay oyster lays from 
sixteen million to sixty million eggs in one season. The 
eggs are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked 
eye. They come from the oyster in a sort of a cloud or 
milky spray which floats out upon the water and which 
soon hatches out into tiny oysters. 

Oysters, when first hatched, are not bigger than the point 
of the finest needle. They are delicate and susceptible to 
cold. They move up and down in the water and finally 
attach themselves to some other body, such as a stone or 
shell. They grow gradually ; at first they look like white 
dots, a little later they are as big as a pin head, and at 
the age of one year they reach the size of a silver twenty- 



174 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



five cent piece. After that, if healthy, they should grow 
about an inch each year, until they are three or four years 
old, when they are of full size. 

The oyster is one of the strangest of all animal crea- 
tions. It has a mouth, but no head. The mouth is 
merely a hole at the narrowest part of the body, and it 
contains neither tongue nor teeth. It is bordered by four 

thin lips, and the 
oyster gets its food 
by filtering sea water 
through these lips. 
The food consists 
entirely of minute 
animal and vegetable 
organisms and small 
particles of matter 
found in ordinary sea 
water. 

The oyster has 
neither ears nor nose, 

Young oysters growing on a stump. but scientists tell US 

that it is able to see in some way and that it will close its 
shell if a shadow passes over the water. Its stomach con- 
sists of a bag which lies just behind the mouth and is 
surrounded by the liver. It has lungs which are like the 
gills of fishes, and also a heart, as one of the muscles is 
sometimes called, but no brain. 

Its shell, or house, consists of two valves fastened by 
a hinge at one end, and so arranged that they can be 
opened and shut at will. While the oyster lies undisturbed 
on the bottom of its bed with its shell open, the sea water 




OYSTERS 



175 



is drawn in and out, thus giving it air and food. The shell 
is a tiny coat at first. It thickens from year to year, so that 
one can tell how old an oyster is by the layers shown upon 
the outside of the shell. Shells have been found which 
were nine inches thick, and some scientists claim that 
oysters have lived one hundred years. 

Oysters are harvested during the fall and winter, by 
men who sail in big boats over the beds. They use rakes 




Oyster dredging. 



and dredges, and sometimes oyster tongs or huge pincers, 

picking and scooping the shells from the bottom of the sea. 

When the boats are loaded, the catch is carried to the 

markets or to packing establishments, where the shells 



176 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



are shucked off and the oysters put into tubs or cans for 
export to all parts of the country. 

The largest oyster-packing centers of the United States 
are upon the Chesapeake Bay, from which many millions 
of oysters are shipped annually. They are sent in boats 




Shucking oysters. 



and cars to our chief cities and towns. The business of 
preparing them for the market employs many thousand 
hands. 

Suppose we enter a Baltimore factory and see the shuck- 
ers at work. The building stands on the edge of the har- 
bor. As we come up, great boats filled with oysters in the 
shell are being unloaded, and a strong smell of the salt sea 
fills the air. There are men on the wharf shoveling oysters 



OYSTERS 177 

into wheelbarrows and carrying them into the shucking 
shed. We follow and enter a long low half-dark room, in 
which, at high tables, which run lengthwise from one end of 
the room to the other, stand several score of men and women 
working away. Some are colored and some white, and all 
are busy. Each has a sort of desk before him, upon which 
is a block with a chisel blade fixed upright in it. He has 
a wooden mallet in one hand ; with the other he picks 
up an oyster and lays the edge of its shell on the blade. 
Now he strikes it a quick blow with the mallet, cutting it 
through. He next thrusts a broad-bladed knife into the gap 
and opens the shell. A scoop of the knife then severs the 
muscle which attaches the oyster to the shell and, long 
before its breath is out of its body, it finds itself cold and 
naked in a bucket with its brothers and sisters which have 
been shucked just before. 

When the buckets are filled, they are carried into 
another room. Here the oysters are washed and put up 
in five-gallon tubs, with a little ice spread on top, and they 
are then ready for their railroad journeys to other parts of 
the country. 

Some oysters are packed up in sealed cans for shipment ; 
some are sent away in the shell, in barrels ; and others are 
pickled with spices, and bottled. In many cities on or near 
the seacoast, the oysters are delivered in the shell ; and each 
dealer opens them for his customers. 

Oysters taste best when fresh from the shell, and they 
are frequently served raw, on the half shell, at the begin- 
ning of a dinner. Indeed, oysters are usually eaten raw 
in all European countries. In the United States they are 
also served in soups and stews, broiled, fried, roasted, and 

FOODS — 12 



i ;8 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



escalloped, and in pies, curries, and turkey stuffing. We 
usually eat oysters only in the months which contain the 
letter " r," beginning with September and ending with 
April. 



o^*;c 



21. LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS, CRABS, AND 
OTHER SHELLFISH 

THE Crustacea are sea animals so named for the hard 
shell of armor which completely covers their bodies. 
There are more than ten thousand varieties of Crustacea, 
including lobsters, crabs, shrimps, prawns, and other salt 

and fresh water creatures. The 
smaller kinds drift in myriads 
about the shores of the oceans 
and Great Lakes, while some of 
the larger varieties are amongst 
the most delicious of the sea 
products eaten by man. 

The lobster, which is the big- 
gest of the Crustacea, has a white 
meat so sweet that it always 
brings high prices, and so largely 
consumed that lobster fishing is 
Lobster - an important industry, our catch 

often amounting to millions of pounds in one year. 

Lobsters are found all along the Atlantic Coast of 
our continent from Labrador to Delaware Bay. The 
greater part of our catch comes from the waters of Massa- 
chusetts and Maine. They are taken in traps three or four 
feet long, made of lathes and stout cords, each of which 




LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS, AND OTHER SHELLFISH 1 79 

will hold several lobsters. The animals feed upon fish, 
snails, and other things found on the bottom of the 
sea ; and the traps are baited with meat or dead fish and 
set not far from the shore, at depths of from twenty- 
five to two hundred feet. They are pulled up every few 
days, and the lobsters are taken out and kept in floating 
cages until enough have been gathered for a shipment to 
be made. We also get lobsters from the Atlantic Coast of 
Canada. Steamers fitted with tanks containing salt water 
run from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Boston and 
New York. At these cities the lobsters are unloaded to be 
sold in the markets or to be transferred to similar tanks 
on railroad cars and sent to our interior cities. By this 
means we are able to have fresh lobster a thousand miles 
or more away from the sea. 

The natural color of the lobster is grayish green, but 
when boiled it turns a brilliant red, whence the expression 
" as red as a boiled lobster." The same is true of shrimps, 
shellfish somewhat like lobsters in miniature. Shrimps 
are only about two inches long ; but they are so numer- 
ous upon our South Atlantic Coast, in San Francisco 
Bay, and elsewhere that they form an important sea 
food. 

The different varieties of crabs are so strange that it 
would take a long time to describe them all. There are 
fresh water crabs and crabs of the sea, crabs of different 
colors, and crabs large and small. The pea crab, some- 
times found in oysters, is not larger than one's little finger- 
nail, while the giant crab of Japan is a foot wide and 
eighteen inches long, and its legs at the front often meas- 
ure fifteen feet from tip to tip. Another large crab is the 



i8o 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 




Blue crab. 



stone crab of Tasmania, which weighs twenty-five or thirty 
pounds, or as much as many a three-year-old child. 

The chief crab used for food in the United States is the 
blue crab, which lives in the waters along our Atlantic 

Coast and in Chesa- 
peake Bay. It is 
taken in wicker traps 
baited with meat, or 
in baited hoop nets, 
which are hauled up 
rapidly from time to 
time to remove the 
catch. 

Another method of 

crab fishing is to use 

a line with a piece of 

raw beef tied to it. The crab grasps the meat with its 

claws, and it may then be slowly drawn to the top of 

the water, where it is caught with a hand net. 

Crabs are always shipped alive to the markets. They 
are packed in wet seaweed and are taken out one by one 
when sold. A man must be very careful in handling 
them. Each crab has two front claws which open and 
shut like a pair of pincers, and when it takes hold it is 
almost impossible to make it let go. I should not advise 
any boy or girl to play with the front claws of a crab. 

Like all the Crustacea, crabs shed their shells from time 
to time and grow new ones. They are considered espe- 
cially delicious when caught just after the old shell has split 
open and dropped off. The skin is then as smooth as 
satin and as soft as the cheek of a baby. Even the small 



LOBSTERS, SHRIMPS, AND OTHER SHELLFISH l8l 

legs arc tender, and the flesh is firm, white, and delicious. 
Every bit of the creature can then be eaten, if it is cooked 
at once ; but, if left in the water, the skin soon becomes 
rough, and within a short time turns to a shell which grows 
harder and thicker from day to day. 

Crabs which have just shed are known as soft shells, 
and those upon which the shells have become old and 
tough are called hard shells. Both are liked as food. 
A not uncommon dish is deviled crab, which is made 
by boiling the animal in the shell, removing the meat, 
seasoning it, and replacing it in the shell to be baked. 

In addition to the sea food we have already considered, 
there are many other fish and shell animals that are used 




Clams. 

upon our tables. Almost every locality along our coasts 
is famous for one kind of sea food or another ; and our 
lakes, rivers, and streams swarm with fish of many varieties. 
Clams, which are somewhat like oysters, abound on the 
shores of the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Cod to Florida. 
They are gathered from the sand or the mud in which they 
bury themselves, and are shipped to the markets in such 
quantities that the industry is of commercial importance. 



l82 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



22. SEA FOOD OF OTHER LANDS 

TO-DAY we shall leave North America and take a 
flying trip across the oceans, to learn about fishing 
and sea food in other parts of the world. We shall start 
with Japan. That country consists of many hundred vol- 
canic islands, some large and some small. The waters are 




In a Japanese fish market. 



deep a short distance from the shores, and they swarm 
with all kinds of fish. The Japanese have more than a 
thousand varieties of sea food, and fishing is one of their 
principal industries. Their annual product of sea food 
amounts to many million dollars. They have more fisher- 
men in proportion to their population than we have, and 



SEA FOOD OF OTHER LANDS 1 83 

so many fishing vessels and boats that one is seldom out of 
sight of these craft in Japanese waters. 

The Japanese eat fish prepared in all sorts of ways. 
They roast, stew, and fry them ; they have baked fish, 
smoked fish, dried fish, and fish soup. They even eat some 
kinds of fish raw. A favorite fish for this purpose is the tai 
sliced thin and brought to the table ice cold. It is eaten 
with chopsticks, each morsel being dipped in soy, a kind of 
sauce, just before it is put into the mouth. 

During their war with the Russians, the Japanese fed 
their armies largely upon fish, sending to the field millions 
of pounds of dried and smoked bonito. 

The bonito abounds off the coasts of Japan. It is a 
round fish which, when grown, weighs three or more 
pounds. It is caught in great nets and cured and smoked 
after the bones are removed. When thus prepared, it be- 
comes so dry and hard that it will last for an indefinite 
period. Insects will not touch it, and it can be carried 
anywhere. Bonito is usually eaten with rice ; or it may be 
shaved into thin slices and cooked in a soup. 

Almost every variety of fish we have in the United States 
is found also in Asiatic waters. The Japanese have mack- 
erel, halibut, and herring, and likewise shellfish, prawns, 
shrimps, crabs, oysters, and clams. They catch great quan- 
tities of sardines, and even salmon, although their salmon is 
not so good as ours. Some of their best fishing grounds are 
about the island of Sakhalin, the southern half of which 
was ceded to the Japanese at the close of their war with 
the Russians. 

Both Japanese and Chinese have water farms which 
give them a great deal of food other than fish. Indeed, it 



1 84 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

is said that some portions of the Bay of Tokio produce so 
many water vegetables that an acre yields an annual profit 
of several hundred dollars. The Chinese farm their waters 
in the same way. The Japanese gather seaweed and 
dry it, cooking it with soup ; they also use it to make 



Drying seaweed in Japan. 

a vegetable isinglass, which is consumed not only in 
Japan, but is exported to Europe, North America, and 
even to China. 

The Chinese are among the great fish eaters of the 
world. There are so many fish in southern China that 
one may have a different kind for breakfast every morn- 
ing of the year, if he will eat every sort that the Chinese 
do. Not only the sea, but also the rivers and canals, are 
filled with fish ; and there are fishermen everywhere. So 
many fish traps are built at intervals out into the inland 
water ways that the boats sometimes scrape them as 
they pass by. There are fishing platforms upon the river 



SKA I'OOI) OF Oil IKK KAN US 



185 



banks ; and one often sees a half-naked man raising or 
lowering a great net into the water. 

The Chinese train otters to catch fish for them ; and a 
not uncommon sight in their rivers is a long boat, on the 
edges of which a score or more cormorants sit, waiting for 
their Chinese master in the stern to order them to dive 
clown into the stream and bring up fish for him. The cor- 
morant is a bird almost as large as a good-sized duck and 




Chinaman with trained cormorants. 



not unlike it in shape. It has a wide mouth and a pouch 
on the under part of its neck in which it can store a num- 
ber of fish until it is ready to eat them. It can dive with 
great force and can swim under water so fast that few fish 
can escape it. The cormorant usually catches a fish by the 
head and swallows it head first, so that the fins, being 
laid against the sides of the body, do not hurt the throat of 
the bird. 

Cormorants are trained for fishing. They are often raised 



1 86 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

in captivity, being hatched under hens. When they are 
about two months old, the trainer takes them in hand and, 
tying a string to one leg, drives them into the water. He 
throws them small live fishes, which they are expected to 
catch, and teaches them to go out and come back at the call 
of a whistle. The birds that do not obey are whipped 
with a piece of bamboo. 

When out fishing for its master, the cormorant is fastened 
to the rim of the boat by a string tied to one leg. At a 
given signal it slides down into the water and dives for 
fish, coming up with them in its mouth or pouch. Its mas- 
ter then makes it disgorge. It is prevented from swallow- 
ing the fish by a strap or ring which is fastened about the 
throat below the pouch. When a bird grows tired, the 
fisherman removes the strap and rewards it with a share of 
the fish it has caught. 

The fish markets of China are interesting. Fish are 
usually sold alive, being kept in tanks or tubs of running 
water while awaiting purchasers. However some fish are 
sold dried and pickled, smoked, or cured in other ways. The 
Chinese eat water plants and delight in some varieties of sea 
food which are unknown to our markets. One of their 
favorite dainties, for instance, is the fins of the shark, cut 
off and dried in the sun. They boil such fins with wood 
ashes and then scrape and wash them until perfectly clean ; 
after this they stew the fins and use them in soups or with 
crab meat and ham. 

Another costly sea food much prized by these people 
is becJie de merox trepang, a great sea worm, or slug, found 
along the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia and the 
islands about. Beche de mer> as they lie in the water, look 



SEA FOOD OF OTHER LANDS 



I8 7 



much like large cucumbers, and they are sometimes called 
"the cucumbers of the sea." They are from one to four 
feet in length and from two to four inches thick. They 
live on the microscopic shellfish which are found in great 
quantities upon coral rocks. About the mouth of each slug 
are hundreds of little feelers with which it brushes the 
rocks and thus draws 
the food into its throat. 
These queer creatures are 
picked up at low tide by 
the fishermen, or are ob- 
tained by diving for them. 
They are cut open and 
cleaned, and then boiled 
and laid in the sun to dry. 
They are now smoked for 
twenty-four hours, when 
they are ready to be 
packed up and shipped 
off to China. 

The waters about our 
Pacific islands swarm with 
sea animals ; and Porto 
Rico, like most of the 
West Indies, has excel- Filipino casting his neU 

lent sea food. The natives of the Philippines live largely 
upon fish, and they have a great variety of nets and traps 
for catching them. In sailing along the coasts or upon 
the rivers and lakes of that far-away colony, one fre- 
quently sees the Filipino fisherman casting his net; and one 
often passes winding cages of bamboo cane stuck down in 




1 88 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

the sand in such a way that the fish can swim in, but 
cannot find their way out. Off the shores of some of 
the islands are large fish corrals, fenced in with bamboo 
canes woven together with rattans. These corrals are 
so hidden at high tide that the fishes swim in, but, 
when the tide falls, they find themselves caught, and the 
fishermen scoop them out with dip nets, killing the larger 
ones with their spears. Everywhere along the coast and 
streams the natives have small fish traps, and, sometimes, 
bamboo cages somewhat similar to ours for trapping 
lobsters. 

How would you like to walk out into the fields near 
home, and be able to catch fish in almost every mud 
puddle ? This is possible in parts of our Philippine 
Islands. The lowlands of some sections are so underlaid 
with water that on breaking through a thin crust of earth, 
a slimy mud is reached, in which several different species 
of mudfish are found. Some are quite small and others a 
foot or more long ; but they are so plentiful that after a 
heavy rain the ditches and small streams are almost filled 
with them. The Filipinos go out after the rains to fish in 
the rice fields ; and during the wet season one may often 
see men and women wading about in the mud, with fishing 
traps of bamboo, in the shape of barrels open at both ends. 
The fishermen push these traps through the muddy water 
into the beds of the irrigating canals, and then feel down 
and around to learn what they have caught. 

Fish of many kinds are sold alive in the markets of 
Manila, being kept in bamboo baskets so tightly woven 
that they will hold water. Upon making a sale, the 
peddler takes the squirming fish out of his basket, lays it 



SEA FOOD OF OTHER LANDS 1 89 

upon a stone, and kills it by striking it just back of the 
neck with a club. 

Going northward to Siberia, we find valuable fishing 
grounds all along its eastern coast. The Russians annu- 
ally catch several hundred million pounds of fish, trepang, 
and crabs in their Asiatic waters ; and the natives of north- 
ern and northeastern Siberia feed not only themselves, 
but their sled dogs on fish. The Eskimos of our continent 
also feed their sled dogs on fish, and they catch walrus 
and other sea animals for this purpose. 

The Russians have rich fisheries in their European rivers 
and seas. There are many fishing boats on the Volga, 
Don, Neva, and Dnieper rivers, and also on the Sea of 
Azov, the Black Sea, and especially on the Caspian Sea. 

An important industry about the Caspian Sea is catch- 
ing sturgeon for their eggs, which are salted, cured, and 
sold as caviar, an appetizing dainty, often eaten upon toast 
at the beginning of a meal. Caviar looks much like bird 
shot sprinkled with water. It has a bitter, salty taste ; and 
I doubt whether you would like it at first. It is put up in 
kegs or cans and shipped to all parts of the civilized world. 
It is now made in the United States, from sturgeon caught 
in our waters, but by no means in such quantities as in 
Russia, which might be called the chief caviar country of 
the world. 

The fisheries of the Baltic are extensive, as are also 
those of the North Sea. From these places comes most 
of the sea food of London, which has perhaps the largest 
wholesale fish market in the world. This is Billingsgate, 
situated in the heart of the city, not far from London 
Bridge. Steam vessels scurry about the North Sea and 



190 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



gather the fish from the places where they are caught and 
bring them to the mouth of the Thames River. Here 
larger and faster boats are waiting to carry them to Lon- 
don. In addition, vast quantities of fish are brought in 

by railway and steamer 
from Ireland and Scot- 
land, so that- altogether 
many thousand tons are 
marketed daily. 

The fish are of al- 
most every variety, from 
whitebait, one of which 
is as big as a baby's 
finger, to great sturgeon, 
which sometimes weigh 
as much as a full-grown 
man. There are her- 
ring, sole, salmon, and 
haddock, as well as 
eels, prawns, shrimps, 
and smelts. 

The fish are sold at 
auction ; and there are 
thousands of peddlers and retail dealers who push this way 
and that as they bid. There are vehicles with boisterous 
drivers and also porters and wheelbarrow men. Indeed, 
the early morning sales at Billingsgate bring together one 
of the noisiest crowds of the world. The place has long 
been so notorious for its confusion and coarse language, 
that " talking Billingsgate " is a common expression for 
using slang or scolding in a vulgar manner. 




A Scotch fishwife. 



TURTLES, FROGS, SNAILS, AND LIZARDS 



191 



23. TURTLES, FROGS, SNAILS, AND 
LIZARDS 




FROGS, turtles, snails, and lizards ! Do people eat such 
things as these ? Yes, indeed ; in many parts of the 
world they are classed among the choicest dainties. Turtle 
soup is delicious, and the diamond-backed terrapin is a 
famous American deli- 
cacy. In our own cities 
frogs sell so largely that 
they are caught by the 
thousands ; and snails so 
delight the Parisians that 
small farms are devoted 
to rearing them. The Iguana lizard. 

great iguana lizard, which abounds on the Isthmus of 
Panama, has flesh which tastes like young chicken ; and 

the armadillo, another 
strange little animal, is 
prized in different parts 
of South America. 

The turtle is a shell- 
incased reptile with four 
little legs ending in feet 
with sharp claws, a short 
tail, and an odd snakelike 
head attached to a long 
flexible neck. Most tur- 
tles can draw their heads, legs, and tails within the shell, 
so that they are protected by it as though covered with 






192 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FEU 

armor. Some turtles have sharp teeth, and, when they take 
hold, it is almost impossible to make them let go without 
chopping off their heads. 

Turtles lay eggs, digging holes for the purpose in the 
sand or mud. After the eggs are deposited, the turtle 
smoothes the earth over, the eggs are hatched by the 
warm sun, and the little turtles pop out. Turtles lay their 
eggs in the same places year after year, and they are 
frequently caught by men who know their breeding 
grounds and who capture them while they are making 
their nests. 

Turtles are of many varieties. One found in some of 
the warmer parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is so 
big that, when full-grown, it would make a cart load for a 
horse; and it has such powerful jaws that it can take off 
a man's finger at a bite. In catching such a turtle, the 
hunters are careful to keep away from its mouth. They 
rush up to it and turn it over on its back, as it lies on the 
sand. It is then helpless, and can be dragged to the ship, 
which is to carry it to London or to some other market for 
sale. Enormous turtles which are said to roar and bellow 
at certain seasons of the year, are found upon the Gala- 
pagos Islands, off the Pacific Coast of South America. 
Other turtles utter a shrill piping note, especially in the 
spring. They are probably of the variety thus referred to 
in Solomon's Song : — 

" For lo the winter is past. 
The rain is over and gone ; 
The flowers appear on the earth ; 
The time of the singing of birds is come 
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 1 ' 



TURTLES, FROGS, SNAILS, AND LIZARDS 1 93 

On the banks of the Amazon there are turtles which lay 
so many eggs that the natives make an oil of them for 
cooking and lighting. The people know the laying sea- 
sons, and they then go out in crowds to the breeding 
grounds. They dig up the nests with spades and put the 
eggs in great piles, until all have been collected. Then 
each little party takes its heap of eggs to an empty canoe 
and mashes them into a filthy-looking mush. The eggs 
are as big as hens' eggs, or a little larger, and they have 
leathery shells which can be easily broken with sticks or 
with the feet. Sometimes the Indian boys and girls take off 
their clothes and jump up and down, treading the eggs, and 
smearing themselves with the yolks as they do so. 

After the stuff is thoroughly mixed, water is poured into 
it and the sun allowed to beat down upon it. In a short 
while an oil rises to the top and can be skimmed off. It 
is afterward refined by cooking in copper kettles over the 
fire ; and then it is stored for use as needed. It is said 
that about six thousand eggs are needed to make one jar 
of oil ; and the eggs annually destroyed for this purpose 
amount to many millions. Indeed, Henry W. Bates, from 
whose travels on the Amazon we get this information, 
says the destruction of the eggs for this purpose is so 
great that the Amazon turtle may in time disappear, espe- 
cially as the natives also collect the newly hatched young 
for eating. 

The favorite turtle of the United States, and, indeed, 
one which has become noted for the delicacy of its flesh, 
is the diamond-backed terrapin, found in the salt marshes 
along our Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from New York to 
Texas and especially in the Chesapeake Bay. This turtle 

FOODS — 13 



194 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

is a pygmy in comparison with the great ocean turtles. It 
is usually from five to seven inches long, and it seldom 
grows to be more than ten inches long. When first 
hatched, it is about a half inch in diameter, and it grows 
at the rate of an inch a year for four or five years, and 
after that more slowly. 

The diamond-backed terrapin feeds largely upon shell- 
fish and small reptiles, varying its animal food with the 
tender shoots and roots of such plants as grow in the 
marshes. It spends most of the summer in the swamps. 
At the beginning of winter it buries itself in the mud at 
the bottom of some pool or stream and remains there until 
spring. 

The terrapin is so delicious that it always brings high 
prices in our city markets. A single fat turtle of this 
variety will sell for several dollars ; and there are many 
terrapin fishers who go about our coasts, wading through 
the swamps and poking down into them with rods to find 
where the terrapin nest. They also turn up the mud with 
spades and sometimes use dredges to drag the dia- 
mond-backs forth from their haunts. Terrapin are also 
trapped by very similar methods to those used for trap- 
ping lobsters, the traps being baited with fish. On some 
of our southern coasts they are hunted with dogs, the dogs 
trailing the turtles to their nests in the grass or bush and 
barking to show where they lie. 

Terrapin farms have been established for the purpose 
of determining whether the animals cannot be profitably 
raised. Our government has fenced in experimental ponds 
in Maryland and in North Carolina and stocked them 
with thousands of diamond-backs, the eggs of which are 



TURTLES, FROGS, SNAILS, AND LIZARDS 



195 



used to supply the marshes from which terrapin have dis- 
appeared. 

Have you ever eaten the fat hind legs of a frog, fried to 
a turn ? They taste like young chicken and are so much 
sought after that in the United States alone we kill mil- 
lions of frogs every year. It is said that we eat more frog 
legs than any other people, even the French. Frog catch- 
ing has become a business in some localities in Minnesota, 
California, Missouri, New York, Arkansas, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, and Indiana. The best places for catching 
them are along the marshes of our lakes and rivers. 

Frogs are caught with lines baited with worms, insects, 
or pieces of red cloth ; they are speared ; and they are 
also shot with guns and crossbows. The best time to 
hunt frogs is at night. 
The sportsman uses a 
lantern, the light of which 
enables him to take aim 
and, at the same time, 
blinds the eyes of the 
frog. 

Sometimes the frogs 
are sold alive, but they 
are usually dressed before Bullfrog. 

they are carried to the markets. In Paris I have seen 
skewers filled with frog legs, which were selling for a few 
cents a dozen. In our country the legs are usually sold 
by the pound, and the live frogs at so much apiece. 

In the United States the chief frogs eaten are bullfrogs, 
green frogs, and spring frogs. These varieties are much 
the same, although there is a difference in size, the bull- 




196 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



frog, which often has a body eight inches long, being the 
largest. 

We have all heard of snails, the little round shell ani- 
mals which move so slowly, although we may not like 
Shakespeare's comparison of them with ourselves, when 
he says : — 

" The whining schoolboy, with his satchel 
And shining morning face, creeping like a snail, 
Unwillingly to school." 

The ordinary American boy does not whine, and he 
usually goes on the run after he has his first pair of trou- 
sers and top-boots. 
He is not like a snail, 
and it is pretty cer- 
tain that he does not 
eat snails. It is dif- 
ferent, however, with 
the boys of southern 
Europe and especi- 
ally with those of 
France. They con- 
sider snails a delicacy 
and eat them in large 
quantities. Snails are 
sold in all the French markets. I have seen bushels of 
them in Paris and have watched the market women dishing 
them out to their customers at so much per dozen or per 
hundred. They are slimy and disgusting looking creatures, 
as they crawl about over one another on the market tables. 
The edible snail comes chiefly from the vineyards of Swit- 
zerland and southern France. It is fed in gardens made 




Snails in a French market. 



VEGETABLES I 97 

for the purpose, and the fatter it is, the higher the price it 
brings. The best snail food is cabbage and clover, and it is 
said that a wagon load of cabbages forms a single meal for 
one hundred thousand snails. In some places the snail 
farmers keep their stock in the house during the winter, 
and they know just how to handle the eggs and the baby 
snails and how to fatten the full grown snails for the 
market. The most of the product of these farms goes to 
the French cities, although several hundred thousand 
pounds of snails are annually sent to the United States. 



J&Zc 



24. VEGETABLES 

ACCORDING to investigations made by our Govern- 
ment Department of Agriculture, vegetables form 
more than one fourth of the daily food of the ordinary 
American family. They are eaten everywhere in large 
quantities, and there are few people so savage that they 
do not raise some kinds of them. 

The varieties of the plant world thus used are so many 
that we cannot mention them all. Some plants are 
valuable for their roots, as turnips, carrots, and beets ; 
some for their bulbs, as onions and garlic ; some for their 
tubers, as potatoes ; others for their stems, as asparagus 
and celery ; others for their leaves, as cabbages, lettuce, 
and spinach ; others for their seeds, as peas and beans ; 
and others for their fruits, green and ripe, as cucumbers, 
squashes, tomatoes, and melons. 

Some vegetables will grow well only in certain localities 



I98 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

and in certain climates, and some are found almost every- 
where. In the United States the principal varieties thrive, 
during one season or other, all over our country ; and out- 
side the cities almost every family grows its own vegetables. 
We have also many thousand farms and gardens where 
vegetables are raised for the markets, the product being 




A truck farm. 

so great that it sells for several hundred million dollars 
every year. The best soil close to our large cities is used 
for gardening ; and along our southern Atlantic Coast vast 
quantities of vegetables are raised during the winter, 
spring, and early summer, for shipment to our northern 
cities, where the weather is so cold that vegetables can- 
not be produced at such times. This business is called 
trucking or truck farming. 



VEGETABLES 



199 



One of the chief trucking centers of the United States 
is the lower shore of the Chesapeake Bay, whence vege- 
tables are sent upon fast steamers to our chief northern 
Atlantic ports and also to Richmond, Baltimore, and Wash- 
ington. During the height of the season several great 
ships loaded with garden truck steam daily from Norfolk 
for New York and Boston ; and vegetables are also carried 
in refrigerator cars to the larger cities of the interior. 

A little farther south, in North Carolina, is another truck- 
ing region, the chief port of which is Wilmington ; and still 




Shipping watermelons. 



farther down the coast, quantities of garden stuff are shipped 
from the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 
Among the chief products of eastern Georgia is the water- 
melon, which is sent northward, beginning in early July, and 
which reaches nearly every large market east of the Missis- 
sippi River. About one half of all the watermelons used 



200 



FOODS : OR MOW THE WORLD IS FED 



in the United States come from eastern Georgia, although 
Norfolk sometimes ships as many as six hundred thou- 
sand in one year. 

Trucking is usually done upon small farms. A large 
amount of vegetables can be raised upon an acre ; but the 
crop requires careful cultivation and almost constant atten- 
tion. The plants must be weeded and hoed and the insects 









H 




M 




*^4r^sf • 


2§ 


o*? <v «.^!HF IHBEe»OB&'XfK3aK 


ViAt3 i JO 



Picking tomatoes on a southern truck farm. 



and worms destroyed, so that one man cannot take charge 
of a large tract. The ordinary truck farm usually contains 
only ten or fifteen acres ; and we have in our country 
something like two hundred and fifty thousand market 
gardens of the average size of one acre each. From many 
of these gardens the products are taken direct to the cities 
near by, and sometimes the gardener hauls the vegetables 
into town in his own wagon and peddles them out. 



VEGETABLES 201 

A great deal of trucking is done on the Pacific Coast, 
where it is carried on by Chinese and Italians. The 
Chinese are skillful cultivators. They economize every 
inch of ground and do not spare water, fertilizer, or trouble, 
in growing their crops. 

Not many years ago canned vegetables were almost un- 
known. They were costly and were used chiefly upon 
shipboard or in remote places where other food was not 
obtainable. To-day they are sold in all our grocery stores, 
as well as at the mines, lumber camps, and other out-of- 
the-way places. We now have more than two thousand 
establishments devoted to canning ; and about four fifths 
of them are engaged in putting up fruits and vegetables. 
The business employs a capital of over fifty million dollars, 
and at certain times of the year the labor of something like 
one hundred thousand men, women, and children. 

The vegetables most canned are corn and tomatoes, our 
product of these two articles alone amounting to some- 
thing like thirty million pounds every year. Peas are 
preserved in a green state, and likewise asparagus, lima 
beans, string beans, succotash, beets, cabbages, pumpkins, 
and squashes. Indeed, it is now possible to buy almost any 
kind of vegetable in cans. 

Until a short while ago, the only way of keeping fruit 
and other such things was by drying, or putting them away 
in salt or sugar. It was in 1795 that Nicholas Appert, a 
Frenchman, submitted to his government a plan for preserv- 
ing food by heating it in glass jars set in boiling water, 
and sealing the jars while hot. This plan worked so well 
that the emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, paid Appert twelve 
thousand francs for his invention. The discovery was 



202 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

introduced into England, and in time a canning business 
grew up in that country. Shortly afterward other in- 
ventions were made along the same line; and about 1815 
Ezra Daggett brought to the United States a process for 
canning salmon, lobsters, and oysters, which was extended 
to the preservation of pickles, jellies, and sauces, and thus 
formed the basis of quite an industry. 

When men began to put up vegetables, tin cans were 
found to be cheaper and more easily shipped than glass 
jars ; and, as the business grew, many machines were in- 
vented to prepare the vegetables for cooking and to aid in 
canning them. We now have hulling machines which will 
take green peas out of the pods at the rate of a thousand 
bushels per day ; and separators which will grade the peas ; 
sieves for sorting and pea blanchers for scalding them. 
There are corncutters which take the grains from the 
cobs of four thousand ears in one hour ; and corn silk- 
ing machines which remove the silk at an equal speed. 
There are also machines for preparing tomatoes, pump- 
kins, and squashes, and many kinds of graters, corers, and 
seeders. 

In canning vegetables and fruits, galvanized wire bas- 
kets are now used to lower the articles into the scalding 
kettles ; and there is an automatic machine which will 
fill twelve thousand cans in a day. Some vegetables 
are cooked in the cans. A great number of cans with 
soldered tops are placed on a tray, and all are lowered 
into a cooking boiler at one time, a little hole being left in 
the top of each can to permit the air and steam to escape. 
When the cooking is finished, the tray is raised, and a drop 
of solder, placed upon the hole, seals each can tight. 



POTATOES 203 



25. POTATOES 

POTATOES form such an important part of our daily 
food that it is hard to imagine living without them. 
Nevertheless, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans of the 
olden time never heard of them, and although Shakespeare 
in his "Merry Wives of Windsor" makes Falstaff say 
" Let the sky rain potatoes," it was long after his time 
that they became a common food of civilized man. 

Potatoes existed nowhere but upon this hemisphere until 
some years after Columbus discovered the New World. 
The Spaniards found the Indians eating these vegetables 
in the valleys and on the slopes of the Andes, and the 
potatoes which they carried home with them were the 
first ones seen in Europe. They were shown to Queen 
Isabella, and were first grown as curiosities in flower gar- 
dens. Later, some were taken to Virginia by the Span- 
iards, and from Virginia to Ireland by Sir John Hawkins. 
Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have carried the first speci- 
mens from Ireland to England and showed them to Queen 
Elizabeth, advocating their use as food. 

It was many years, however, before the people of Europe 
began to appreciate this vegetable. They used it first for 
their cattle and hogs and then for the poor in times of 
famine. It was chiefly as a famine food that the potato was 
first cultivated in Ireland ; but the better classes soon dis- 
covered its value, and it then became one of the chief 
crops of that country and also spread to many parts of 
Europe. The early use of the potato by the Irish gave it 
the name of the " Irish potato," in contrast with the 



204 KO0DS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

sweet potato, which is also a native of our hemisphere. 
We shall treat of the sweet potato further on, using the 
general term " potato " for the Irish potato only. 

To-day potatoes are used in every country of Europe, and 
more are raised there than in any other part of the world. 
The chief of all potato lands is Germany, which yields 
about one fourth of the world's crop. The sandy plains 




Plowing a potato field. 

sloping up from the Baltic are especially adapted to these 
vegetables, and they produce many million tons of them 
every year. Other European countries which raise pota- 
toes in large quantities are Russia, Spain, Portugal, Aus- 
tria-Hungary, and France. In the United States the 
potato crop ranks next to our cereal crop. We raise 
several hundred million bushels annually, and there are 
few farmers who have not their potato patches. 



POTATOES 205 

Our chief potato states are New York, Wisconsin, 
Michigan, and Pennsylvania, although we have many 
others which raise this crop in large quantities. Some 
of the best of our potatoes are produced in California 
and Utah and upon other parts of the Rocky Mountain 
plateau. 

Have you ever considered what an odd vegetable the 
potato is ? It is a tuber which grows under the ground 
on the roots of a plant, instead of upon its vines or 
branches. The French call it pomme de terre, which 
means " apple of the earth," and the Germans also know 
it as the earth apple or dcr Erdapfel. It is not unlike 
the apple in size ; and contains an enormous amount of 
water, as does the apple, but, in addition, it has a con- 
siderable amount of starch and of other elements, which 
make it much more valuable for food. 

Potatoes are grown by planting old potatoes or pieces of 
them. Upon each potato are numerous little dimples, 
called eyes, from which, when planted, the vines grow up 
and the roots grow down. After a while little potatoes 
form on the roots. They grow to the size of peas, then of 
marbles, and some varieties finally become so large that one 
potato weighs several pounds. At the same time the vines 
have grown above ground until they have reached a height 
of two or three feet. Their color is a rich dark green, and 
they have beautiful little flowers and now and then round 
pods containing seeds. When the vines begin to die, the 
potatoes are ripe, and they may then be dug or plowed up 
and stored away or sent to the market. 

There are many varieties of potatoes, some early and 
some late, some large and some small. Some have a 



206 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

better flavor than others, and some will produce far more 
to the acre. It has been found that when one plants the 
seeds in the little potato pods, new varieties may come 
from them ; and that when these potatoes themselves are 
planted, they produce their own kind. The famous Early 
Rose potato came from the seeds of some South American 




Harvesting potatoes. 

wild potatoes, which had been carried to Vermont and 
planted; and the Burbank potato was discovered by a 
schoolboy named Luther Burbank, who planted some 
seeds from the vine of an Early Rose. Young Burbank 
had heard how the Early Rose potato originated. He 
was interested in plant growing and when, upon going to 
school one morning, he saw a green seed pod in an Early 



POTATOES 207 

Rose potato patch by the roadside, he decided to gather 
it when ripe and to save the seeds to plant the next year. 
He looked further, but this pod was the only one he 
could find. The Early Rose differs from many other 
varieties of potatoes in that it does not often have seeds ; 
therefore young Burbank was especially anxious about this 
pod. He watched it carefully from clay to day, and the very 
morning when he thought it would be ready for picking, 
he was dismayed to find it had disappeared. He looked 
for it a long time and finally got down on his knees and 
went carefully over the bed. After some hours he found 
the pod. It lay hidden away under another vine about 
sixteen feet distant, where it had been blown by the wind, 
or thrown by some one running rapidly through the field. 
He saved it and planted the seeds the following year ; 
and the result was the Burbank potato, which is now 
famous throughout the world. 

I have visited some of the high valleys of the Andes 
Mountains, which are said to be the home of the potato, 
and have watched the Indians selling potatoes in the Peru- 
vian and Bolivian cities. Many kinds are sold in La Paz, 
where the market women peddle them out at so much 
per pile of a dozen or so. The chief varieties there are 
by no means so large as those of the United States, some 
kinds being little larger than marbles. 

During the winter we keep potatoes in cellars or in 
other warm places. The Bolivian Indians accomplish the 
same object by freezing and drying them. They soak the 
potatoes in water and let them freeze night after night 
until they are soft. The skins are then rubbed off by 
treading them with the bare feet, and the potatoes are 



208 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

dried in the open air. After so drying, they become as 
hard as stones, and they have to be soaked three or four 
days before they are cooked. They are now called cJiuno, 
and will keep a long time. 

Irish potatoes are used for making starch, glucose, and 
other things. The Germans make alcohol of them and 
feed them largely to their cattle and hogs. 

Next to the Irish potato, the vegetable most extensively 
grown in the United States is the sweet potato. It is 
annually raised by more than one million farmers, and the 
crop sometimes sells for over twenty million dollars. It is 
cultivated most largely in our Southern States, and also to 
a considerable extent in New Jersey, Illinois, and Mis- 
souri. The crop grows best in a warm, sandy soil, where 
several hundred bushels are frequently gathered from one 
acre. 

26. IMPORTANT VEGETABLES USED FOR 
FOOD 

JF our vegetables could speak and tell us about them- 
selves, we might learn that each has its history, and 
that many have long held an important place in furnishing 
food for mankind. Even the humble bean might show us 
that it requires some education to know him. He could 
tell how his kind originated in western Asia, and how he 
has for ages been used as food throughout the world. He 
might say that there are one hundred and fifty varieties of 
him now cultivated in the United States ; and refer to the 
string bean, which we eat green, the lima bean, whose 



IMPORTANT VEGETABLES USED FOR FOOD 209 

native home is South America, the bone bean, which came 
from Scotland, and the soy bean, used in China and in 
Japan for making a sauce and also for the delicious bean 
candy which all Japanese boys and girls like. He would 
surely mention dwarf beans, field beans, bush beans, and 
pole beans ; and, if he were properly asked, he might tell 
us just what kind of a bean it was up whose mighty stalk 
Jack the Giant Killer climbed. 

The bean would certainly say something of himself as 
food for cattle and hogs ; and he would not omit to tell 
how the famous baked beans of Boston are cooked and ex- 
ported everywhere in cans. Indeed, he might even go 
back into history and describe the elections of ancient 
Greece, when beans were used by the voters as ballots, each 
man dropping one into a helmet to indicate his choice ; or, 
he might tell about the feast of the Bean King, which was 
long held on Twelfth Night in France, Germany, and Eng- 
land. At this feast a bean was hidden in a large cake, 
and when it was cut, the child who got the slice contain- 
ing it was made king over the rest of the guests for that 
evening. 

The pea would also have his story, showing how he first 
grew wild in southern Europe and in Asia, and was a com- 
mon food of the ancient Greeks and Romans. He might 
say that he formed a principal food of the working classes 
in England before the potato was brought over from Amer- 
ica ; and tell how he is now eaten, both green and ripe, 
throughout the civilized world. 

As to the cabbage, which is supposed to be the dullest 
of all the vegetables, his head is full of strange information. 
The Romans and Greeks had a tradition that he sprang 

FOODS — 14 



2IO FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

from the sweat of Jupiter, some drops of which fell upon 
earth. We know that cabbages have long been cultivated, 
that our common cabbage was first brought into England 
by the Romans, and that it is now grown everywhere in 
the United States. There are all together more than an 
hundred different varieties of cabbages ; some are red, and 
some white, some are small and some are large, a single 
head weighing thirty pounds, and, with the leaves, being 
big enough to fill a wheelbarrow. 

The lettuce, another leaf vegetable, comes from the 
East Indies ; but it has been used in salads in Europe as 
far back as any one can remember. We raise a great deal 
of it in Michigan and New Jersey. It is grown largely in 
the south during the winter, and is shipped northward in 
barrels and crates. Cabbages and spinach are exported 
in the same way. 

But how about the plants whose roots and bulbs are so 
largely eaten ? I refer to beets, carrots, onions, and tur- 
nips. Each of them belongs to the oldest of the vegetable 
kind, and has long been a part of the food of man. We 
have all heard of the Pyramids of Egypt. Herodotus, 
a Greek historian, sometimes called the Father of History, 
who wrote about them ages ago, says that the writings 
carved upon them showed how much garlic and how many 
radishes and onions were eaten by the workmen during 
their building, and that the cost of these vegetables alone 
amounted to sixteen hundred talents of silver, or a great 
deal more than one million dollars. 

We know that man has been eating onions and garlic 
from that time to this. The Spaniards and Italians are 
especially fond of them, and the onion peddler is a common 



IMPORTANT VEGETABLES USED FOR FOOD 



211 




sight in the cities of southern Europe. He puts up his 
onions in strings by braiding together the tops and goes 
about with them thrown 
over his shoulder. 

As to carrots and tur- 
nips, they are a choice 
food for cattle as well as 
for man ; and beets are 
eaten by both man and 
beast. Indeed, some of 
us eat beets every day in 
a way we little imagine. 
We spread them upon 
bread and butter in the 
form of beet sugar ; and 
we are often consuming 
beets when we eat candy. 
We shall learn more about this later on, when we look 
into the beet sugar product of the world. 

The story of asparagus, the vegetable which comes first 
upon our tables in the early spring, is interesting. It was 
used in old Rome, and the Roman soldiers carried the 
knowledge of it to the Gauls and Britons. It grew wild 
in Holland, France, Germany, Hungary, and England, and 
soon it began to be cultivated in the gardens. It was 
brought to our country by our Pilgrim Fathers and is now 
grown everywhere. All along our Atlantic Coast, from 
Charleston to Boston, and on the Pacific Coast, and in parts 
of the Mississippi Valley, asparagus is raised for shipment 
to the markets, great quantities being produced on Long 
Island and in New Jersey. 



A Spanish onion peddler. 



212 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



Asparagus is one of the lily-of-the-valley family of plants, 
and it might be called a second cousin to the smilax, whose 
vines are used for floral decorations. It is grown from 
the seed ; but a bed once started will produce for years, 
new vines and sprouts coming up every season. The 
shoots only are eaten ; they are round fat green or white 




Preparing celery for the markets. 

stems which sprout out of the center of the plant and 
are cut when soft and tender. They are tied up in bunches 
of ten or more to be shipped to the markets. 

Celery is a native of Europe, but it is now cultivated 
widely in our country, especially in Michigan, Ohio, 
and New York, and also, for winter use, in Florida and 
California. So much celery is grown about Kalamazoo, 



IMPORTANT VEGETABLES USED FOR FOOD 213 

Michigan, that it is sometimes called " the celery city." 
The celery is raised there on the rich lowlands about the 
town, and several crops are produced in one year. The 
seed for the first crop is sown in hotbeds before the snow 
has disappeared, and the plants are set out five or six 
weeks later, being banked up from time to time to keep the 
sun off the stalks and thus preserve the white color. 

Some of the celery land is so low and wet that wooden 
plates about as big as a large geography book are fastened 
to the shoes of the horses to keep them from sinking in, 
while plowing the rows. The horse soon learns to shift 
his feet sideways, so that he does not step on his wooden 
shoes. Similar shoes are used on plow mules, on some of 
our truck farms in the lower part of Florida. 

But it would take a long time to discuss all the food 
plants grown in our gardens. If you would know more 
about spinach, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, and a host 
of such things, you must ask each plant for its story. We 
can now take a glance at only the tomato and the melon. 
The tomato is such an important food product that it is 
canned in greater quantities than any other vegetable. 
It is now grown in almost every garden, but civilized man 
knew nothing about it until the New World was dis- 
covered ; and long after that it was cultivated only for the 
beauty of its rich green foliage and its fruit, which was 
thought to be poisonous. It was called the love apple. 

The muskmelon came from the warmer regions of Asia, 
and it is now grown in all parts of the world where it is 
not too cold. The cantaloupe, one of the smallest varieties 
of this vegetable, is especially delicious. The water- 
melon is a native of tropical Africa, but it is now eaten 



214 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 




Packing cantaloupes. 

almost everywhere. We have two hundred thousand acres 
devoted to it in the United States, and in the early summer 
it is shipped from our Southern States to all parts of the 
north. 



3^*JC 



27. IN THE GARDENS OF OTHER LANDS 

LEAVING the United States, we shall now take a flying 
trip to learn something about the vegetables of other 
parts of the world. Europe has extensive gardens. Its 
chief cities are surrounded by them, and the best soil of the 
thickly populated regions is used for growing vegetables. 
In the winter many varieties of garden stuff are produced 



IN THE GARDENS OF OTHER LANDS 215 

in glass houses and hotbeds ; and the warm countries of 
the south supply the people farther north with their winter 
food of this kind. Fast trains are always shooting from 
one end of Europe to the other, carrying vegetables and 
fruits ; and many vegetables raised under the hot winter 
sun of Algeria are sent on steamers across the Mediter- 
ranean to France, and thence by rail to Paris and other 
cities. On the southern side of the English Channel are 
large gardens and truck farms whose market is London ; 
so that commerce and transportation have a great business 
in bringing the vegetables from the places where they are 
raised to the people who, for reasons of climate, soil, or 
business, cannot produce them themselves. 

This is so not only in Europe and in our own country, but 
in all parts of the world. Steamers and railroad trains are 
always moving up and down the earth, transporting food 
products that can be grown to better advantage in one 
section than in another. China sends vegetables and fruits 
to Japan, and Japan sends foods back in return. I once 
traveled from Swatow, in southern China, to Bangkok, via 
Hong Kong, on a steamer loaded with cabbages and pota- 
toes for the Siamese ; and, in going down the east coast of 
Australia, our vessel took on tropical fruits and early vege- 
tables at the northern Queensland ports, which are nearer 
the Equator, to sell in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, 
the colder cities of the south. In sailing up the Parana 
River from Buenos Ayres northward to Asuncion in Para- 
guay, we carried vegetables ; and returning, our ship was 
filled with oranges and tropical fruits. One who goes in 
the early spring from Havana, or other parts of the West 
Indies, to New York, may see ripe tomatoes, early potatoes, 



2l6 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

eggplants, and other fresh vegetables placed upon board 
for our markets. 

Down the west coast of South America extends a narrow 
strip of desert, about two thousand miles long. It has rich 
mines here and there ; and near the coast of northern 
Chile are nitrate fields which supply fertilizing salts, so 
good for raising vegetables that the gardeners of our 
country and Europe pay high prices for them. For that 
reason, they are exported by the ship load. A great indus- 
try has been established in digging the nitrate rock from 
the desert, and cities and towns have grown up there. 
Nevertheless, the climate is such that no vegetables or fruits 
can be raised there. No grass and green trees are to be 
found anywhere, and the people must depend entirely for 
their garden stuff, fruits, and other food, upon the lands 
which lie far to the north or south of them. So, although 
the nitrate region yields the very best of stuff to raise vege- 
tables, it is entirely dependent on other lands for its vege- 
tables. Commerce, however, enables it to sell its nitrate 
rock to the market gardeners across the oceans for enough 
to supply it with all the food it needs, and a large sum in 
addition. 

The miners of the desert likewise exchange their gold, 
copper, and silver for food, in another way ; and so do the 
workers in factories, in cities, or in the bleak and out-of- 
the-way places of the earth. Indeed, every populated part 
of the globe has, or is able to make, some things much 
desired by man, that other lands have not ; and hence, the 
whole world is joined together by human wants and the 
money paid to supply them. 

There are, however, some foods which grow in certain 



IN THE GARDENS OF OTHER LANDS 



217 



parts of the earth which are almost unknown and unused 
in other parts. We have seen how Indian corn, potatoes, 
and tomatoes were strangers to our race until Columbus 
discovered the New World. Millions of people are to-day 
feeding upon things that seldom come upon our tables and 
of which we know little. One of these foods is manioc, 
the roots of which, in South 
America, the West Indies, and in 
parts of Asia and Africa, largely 
take the place of both potatoes 
and wheat. The South Americans 
eat them roasted, boiled, and baked, 
as we eat potatoes, and also grind 
them into flour, from which bread 
and cakes are made. In the Congo 
Valley the manioc root is mashed 
to a pulp, and after being washed 
is allowed to ferment. It is then 
mixed into a stiff dough and cooked 
up like dumplings, to be eaten at 
home or sold in the market. We 
use manioc ourselves in the shape 
of arrowroot and tapioca, and we 
grow it to some extent in Florida and on a narrow strip 
of land along the Gulf of Mexico, from that state to Texas. 
Manioc, or cassava, belongs to the same family as the 
milkweed. It is not raised from the seed, but from the 
canes or stalks of the previous season, which are kept and 
planted in much the same way that sugar cane is. Both 
root and cane sprout out from the joints, the cane growing 
to a height of four or five feet, and the roots extending 




A load of manioc. 



2i; 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



out on all sides in a cluster which sometimes weighs many 
pounds. A single root is often as big around as one's 
wrist and as long as one's arm. The roots are the val- 
uable parts of the plant. They are full of starch and 
other food matter, and in some varieties they contain also 




In a tapioca factory at Singapore 



a bitter acid, which is poisonous. This is removed by 
washing or cooking, after which they form an excellent 
food. 

In making tapioca the bitter roots are washed and then 
cut and ground up and mashed to a pulp. They are next 
strained in such a way that all the starchy particles are 
taken out of the fibers. The starch is then allowed to 
settle and harden, when it is broken fine and packed for 



IN THE GARDENS OF OTHER LANDS 



219 



shipment abroad. There are tapioca factories in the West 
Indies, at Singapore, and in other parts of Malaysia, and 
also at different places in South America. We use tapioca 
in puddings and soups. It may be found for sale in 
almost any grocery store. In some parts of the world 
manioc roots are fed to cattle and hogs. 

Our cousins of the Hawaiian Islands have a vegetable 
which furnishes such a large part of their food that they 
could not afford to lose 
it. This is the taro 
plant, which grows al- 
most everywhere in the 
warm islands of the 
South Seas. It has no 
stem ; but its heart- 
shaped leaves are so 
large that one would 
almost do for an um- 
brella. The leaves and 
stalks are sometimes 
eaten like spinach and Taro plant " 

asparagus ; but the chief food value lies in the long tuber- 
ous root, which is full of starchy material. 

Taro is grown in gardens, or in patches out in the fields, 
by planting cuttings from the tops of the roots. When 
ripe, the roots are dug up, washed, and then roasted or 
baked. They are next put into wooden trays and pounded 
up with water into a thick dough, which is allowed to fer- 
ment. This dough is called poi, and it may be eaten as it 
is, or cooked again in a variety of ways. In the Himalaya 
Mountains and also in Japan and Porto Rico, somewhat 



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220 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



similar roots are used in the same way that we use pota- 
toes. 

The bamboo, from one variety of which we make fish- 
ing poles, takes the place of asparagus in tropical coun- 
tries. It grows in clumps of tall cane, which are often 
large around at the base and as high as a three, four, or 
five-story house. This plant sends 
out shoots, so tender that they can 
be eaten boiled or stewed, or can be 
pickled with vinegar and other sauces. 
Bamboo shoots are esteemed deli- 
cious by the Japanese, Chinese, and 
also by our cousins of the Philippine 
Islands. The Chinese consider one 
species of this plant an emblem of a 
child's obedience to its parents, which 
they regard as the greatest of all 
virtues. They have a legend about 
a Chinese boy who so loved his 
mother that, during one winter, when 
she was sick and longed for a soup 
made of bamboo shoots, he went out 
to the garden and watered the bamboo 
plants with his tears. As the story 
goes, his tears were so hot with his 
affection, and so copious, that they softened the frozen 
soil and caused the tender shoots to burst forth. I will 
not vouch for the truth of this story, but it may be found 
in Chinese books ; and it is said that the Japanese have 
named a bamboo after the Chinese boy who so loved his 
sick mother. 




Bamboo grove. 



ODD FOODS FROM TREES AND VINES 



221 



28. ODD FOODS FROM TREES AND 
VINES 

THERE are many other foods from trees and vines. 
The crowns of many palm trees from which the long 
leaves sprout out are cooked as we cook cabbage, and 
eaten ; and there are several palms the sap of which is 
used to make wine and 
sugar. The sap of the 
nipa palm of our Philip- 
pine Islands is made into 
palm wine and palm beer ; 
and there are palms 
known as wine palms 
and cabbage palms. The 
carnauba palm of Brazil 
has not only an edible 
crown, but its leaves are 
coated with a vegetable 
wax from which candles 
are made ; and the nuts 
of the betel palm are chewed like tobacco in the Philippine 
Islands and the neighboring countries. The doum palm 
of Upper Egypt is often called the gingerbread tree, be- 
cause its fruit is brown and mealy, tasting somewhat like 
gingerbread ; and the sago palm has a pith which is made 
into meal or flour and sent all over the world, to be used 
for making starch and confectionery, and in puddings and 
the thickening of soups. We can find some of this pith in 
almost any of our grocery stores. 




The gingerbread tree. 



222 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



The sago palm is the most important of all the food 
palms, with the exception of the cocoanut palm. It is 
grown for commercial purposes in southeastern Asia, espe- 
cially in Singapore, Sumatra, and the neighboring islands. 
It is not as tall as many other palms ; but it is so thick 
that a full-grown man could hardly reach around it. 

The trunk of this tree consists of a hard wall, inside of 
which is a spongy pith, so full of starch and other nutri- 




Making sago. 



tious matter that it gives a great quantity of excellent food. 
It is said that three large sago palms will yield more 
food than one acre of wheat, and several times as much as 
an acre of potatoes. 

There is just one time in the life of this palm when it is 
fit for eating. This is when it is about seven years old, 
just before it begins to bear fruit. After that, the pith 



ODD FOODS FROM TREES AND VINES 223 

gradually disappears, and when the tree is full-grown the 
trunk becomes a hollow shell. 

In making sago the palms are cut down near the roots, 
and the trunks are divided into logs six or seven feet long. 
These are split, and the pith is taken out and ground to a 
powder somewhat like sawdust. The dust is next mixed 
with water and then run through a series of sieves, to get 
out the coarse fiber. During this process the starchy and 
food materials go into the water, which is drawn off into 
other vessels. As it stands, the sago falls to the bottom 
in a flour or meal and later is dried and roasted in such 
a way that it forms the pearl sago of commerce. Sago 
meal is eaten by the natives as a mush, and is also baked 
in small biscuits, in which shape it will keep a long time. 
The island of Singapore is one of the chief places where 
pearl sago is made. 

Have you ever thought how the peanut gets its name ? 
It is really a ground pea with the taste of a nut. It has 
a pod somewhat like a pea, but the pods or shells grow on 
the stem of the plant under the ground. It seems strange 
to speak of the peanut as a vegetable ; but if we should 
go to the southern part of Virginia, we might see great 
fields of them being cultivated by very similar methods to 
those used in cultivating potatoes or corn. Peanuts are 
raised there for export, and millions of bushels are shipped 
away every year. 

The peanut grows in many tropical and subtropical 
countries. It is thought to be a native of Brazil, but it is 
now grown in all the warm regions of the globe. Great 
quantities are raised in Africa, Europe, and in Virginia, 
North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. We use pea- 



224 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

nuts chiefly for eating at odd times, rather than as a staple 
article of diet. They are on sale in our stores, and men 
and boys peddle them about at fairs, shows, and at the 
fruit stands in our various cities. We eat them in candies 
and in peanut butter ; and we also feed them to hogs and to 
cattle. In Europe peanuts are imported from Africa and 




Peanut pickers in North Carolina. 

elsewhere for making an oil, much like salad oil ; and 
amongst some African tribes they are an important food. 
In planting the nuts are first shelled and then dropped 
in hills or drilled in rows. They soon sprout and grow 
vines which cover the ground and look somewhat like 
clover. They are carefully plowed and hoed to keep 
down the weeds. When the vines are about eight inches 
long, they begin to blossom and are soon covered with 



GENERAL VIEW OF OUR FRUIT INDUSTRY 225 

small yellow flowers. As each flower fades away, a sharp 
pointed stem shoots out, turns downward, and buries itself 
in the ground. On the end of the stem a pod forms, con- 
taining the peanuts, which continue to grow until they are 
ripe. 

The planting is done in the spring, and the nuts are 
ready to harvest in the fall. The vines, with the peanuts 
attached to their underground stems, are dug up and put 
in little stacks about poles to dry. They remain in the 
stacks several weeks, after which the nuts are picked off 
and sacked up for the markets. A thrifty peanut vine 
should yield about one hundred nuts, and an acre forty 
bushels. 

After the peanuts are picked from the vines, they are 
still covered with dirt and must be cleaned before they 
can be sold. The cleaning is done in fanning mills, much 
like those used by farmers for cleaning grain. After this 
process the nuts are sorted by women and girls, who pick 
out the bad ones, as the peanuts are carried by them on a 
moving belt a yard wide. 



29. GENERAL VIEW OF OUR FRUIT 
INDUSTRY 

NOT many years ago fruit was much less important as 
an article of commerce than it is now. Only a few 
fresh fruits, such as apples, lemons, and oranges, could then 
be kept for a long time or be sent to any great distance 
from the places where they were grown ; and only a few dried 

fruits, such as dates, raisins, and prunes, could be exported. 
foods — 1 5 



226 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Modern invention has since supplied quick transportation 
on land and sea and also cold storage arrangements, by 
which fruits can be preserved fresh during their transit 
from one part of the world to another. America, Aus- 
tralia, and South Africa now ship apples, pears, and plums 
to Europe ; and Europe sends back dried figs, raisins, and 
seedless grapes in return. California exports oranges, 
lemons, peaches, and pears to New York, Chicago, and 
other cities ; and Washington and Oregon give our Eastern 
States some of their most delicious apples. Florida sends 
subtropical fruits to the north, and Georgia gives us 
peaches long before they are ripe in the Northern States. 

Later in the year, after the fruit season in some localities 
is over, the southern people import fruit which has ripened 
more slowly in the cold north lands. Indeed, commerce 
now supplies us with fresh apples, lemons, bananas, and 
oranges throughout the year ; and pears, strawberries, 
grapes, and peaches, which a half century or more ago 
could be had for but a few weeks, are now brought from 
so many different climates that they are in our markets 
for many months. 

Inventions for preserving fruits have also been made. 
They are so dried and canned that they can be kept 
a long time and shipped all over the world. Fruits, fresh 
and preserved, now form a large part of the diet of civil- 
ized man. 

When our continent was discovered, the Indians had 
only a few species of wild grapes, plums, and berries, and 
these were worth but little. Now we have almost every 
fruit of the north temperate zone, many of the south tem- 
perate, and even some of the tropical zone. Orange trees 



GENERAL VIEW OF OUR FRUIT INDUSTRY 227 

were planted by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, Florida, 
more than half a century before the Pilgrims landed on 
Plymouth Rock. Grapes were growing at Jamestown in 
1619, and pears were planted in New York City eleven 
years later. We know that we had apple orchards about 
the same time ; and, about a hundred years later, one of 
the villages near Boston reported the manufacture of 
ten thousand barrels of cider. 

Fruits of many kinds were introduced with the settling 
of our country, and all the world has been called upon for 
our fruit trees and plants. Europe gave us apples, cher- 
ries, and pears ; Asia peaches and plums, as well as 
oranges and figs ; Africa has supplied the date which we 
are now raising on some of the semi-arid lands of the 
west ; and from South America came the navel orange, so 
important to commerce. 

We are now raising more kinds of fruit than any other 
nation, and we lead the world in the value of our fruit 
product and in the best methods of fruit preservation 
and marketing. When our last census was taken, our fruit 
crop was estimated at twelve billion pounds, and its value 
at more than one hundred and thirty million dollars, an 
amount much greater than all the gold and silver mined 
in our country during that year. 

Our fruit crop is so large that the labor of many thou- 
sands is required to handle it ; and it is so important in some 
localities, where the soil and climate are exactly suited to 
raising certain kinds of fruits, that the people do little else 
but attend to it. The county of Santa Clara in Cali- 
fornia, for instance, sometimes raises three million dollars' 
worth of fruit in one year ; and Fresno County, in the same 



228 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FKD 



state, produces so many grapes that one year's crop will 
sometimes sell for about two million dollars. There are 
regions in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Mis- 
souri, Oregon, and Washington where apples grow so well 
that the people have large orchards of them ; and Cali- 
fornia and Florida have an enormous industry in growing 
oranges for shipment to all parts of our country. 

If we could look over the United States and examine 
each locality carefully, we should find that the larger share 




A California fruit ranch. 



of the money from our fruit crop comes from the North 
Atlantic and the North Central States ; although the West- 
ern States annually produce only a few million dollars' worth 
of fruit less than either of these divisions. Our seven 
chief fruit states are California, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Missouri, New 
Jersey, and Virginia are also important. California pro- 
duces more than any other state, its product being almost 
twice as valuable as that of New York, which ranks next, 
and nearly three times as valuable as that of Pennsylvania, 



APPLES 229 

the third of our fruit states in rank. In one year California 
has realized fifteen million dollars from its fruit orchards, 
as well as six million dollars from grapes, and more than 
seven millions from oranges and other subtropical fruits. 
In the same year New York realized ten million dollars from 
its orchards, about three millions from grapes, and about 
two and one half millions from small fruits. When we re- 
member how thickly New York is populated, how many 
cities it has, and the great size of New York City, we can 
see why so much money is realized from small fruits. 



°XKc 



30. APPLES 

FRUIT trees of one kind or another are to be found in 
almost every part of the United States, and in some 
places in such large numbers that the business of caring 
for them and of marketing the crop is the principal industry. 
Our apples, quinces, pears, peaches, and plums annually 
sell for enough to give every man, woman, and child in 
our whole country one dollar and leave some money over. 
They bring in about twice as much as the grapes and small 
fruits, and almost ten times as much as our oranges, lemons, 
and other productions of a subtropical nature. 

Of these products the apple is the most important. It 
will keep longer than any of the others, and people like it 
the year round. It is one of the oldest fruits known. 
Many suppose that the apple was the forbidden fruit 
of the Garden of Eden and that our first parents were cast 
out of Paradise for eating: it. The ancient Greeks consid- 



230 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

ered it the most beautiful of all fruits ; and it is mentioned 
frequently in their legends of gods and heroes. 

We remember the story of the golden apple which 
brought about the ten years' siege of Troy and its final 
destruction by the Greeks. The Goddess of Discord threw 
the apple which bore the words, "For the Fairest," into 
a party of gods and goddesses. When it fell, Juno, the 
wife of Jupiter and queen of all the gods ; Minerva, the 
Goddess of Wisdom ; and Venus, the Goddess of Love and 
Beauty, each claimed that she was the fairest and ought to 
have it. Jupiter was called in to settle the dispute, and he 
gave the decision over to Paris, a shepherd on Mount Ida. 
Each goddess tried to influence Paris by bribes. Juno 
offered him power and riches, Minerva wisdom, and Venus, 
the most beautiful woman of all the world for his wife. 
He gave the apple to Venus, and in return received 
Helena, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and carried 
her to Troy. To get back his wife, Menelaus then raised 
an army, and with his brother kings of Greece began the 
Trojan War, which is celebrated in the poems of Homer 
and Virgil. 

And then there is the story of the three golden apples 
of the Garden of Hesperides, which were defended by a 
horrid sleepless dragon with one hundred heads, and of 
how Hercules succeeded in getting them '; and also that of 
the fair maiden Atalanta, who could run faster than any one 
else in the world. Atalanta was so beautiful and so charm- 
ing that many a young man wanted her for his wife, but she 
said she would marry only him who could distance her on 
the race track ; and as she did not want to be troubled with 
too many suitors, she also said that every one who ran 



APPLES 231 

with her and failed should suffer death. At last the cun- 
ning Hippomenes came to try his fate. He brought three 
golden apples with him, and as he ran he dropped one from 
time to time. Atalanta could not resist stopping to pick 
up the apples, and Hippomenes came out victorious. 

Apples are now grown in most countries of Europe ; and 
they thrive so well in Tasmania and in New Zealand that 
they are exported from these countries to San Francisco and 
London. They are grown more generally, however, in 
North America than in any other continent, and more gen- 
erally in the United States than anywhere else. The apple 
was brought here from Europe by our forefathers, who 
planted orchards almost everywhere they stopped, as they 
pushed their way westward ; so that apples are now raised 
on a commercial scale from Nova Scotia to North Carolina, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They grow especially 
well in New England, in some parts of Virginia, North 
Carolina, Missouri, and Arkansas, and in certain valleys of 
Washington and Oregon. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, and Kentucky are also famous 
apple states, each having millions of apple trees. Albe- 
marle County, Virginia, the Ozark Mountain region of 
Missouri, the Wenatchee Valley in Washington, and the 
Hood River Valley in Oregon are celebrated for their large, 
delicious, and highly colored apples, and the same is true 
of eastern Canada and of some of the valleys of British 
Columbia. 

I wonder if any of us has ever heard of Johnny Apple- 
seed ? He was an odd character who had much to do with 
starting the first orchards of Pennsylvania and Ohio, which 
are now two of our chief apple-raising states. Johnny 



232 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Appleseed's real name was Jonathan Chapman. He was 
born in Boston in 1775, and, when a young man, he went to 
live in western Pennsylvania, which was then almost a 
wilderness. Johnny somehow got the idea that it was his 
mission to give apples to the people, and he began to plant 
apple seeds wherever he could. In 1801 he drove westward 
into Ohio, carrying a wagon load of apple seeds which he 
had gathered from the Pennsylvania cider presses. He 
picked out fertile spots along the streams and planted or- 
chards. Then he went back and got more seeds and 
planted them. He often carried a bag of seeds on his back, 
as he marched through the woods from one settler's cabin 
to another, and gave some to each settler with whom he 
stopped. Many of the little trees which grew in his wild 
nurseries he afterward dug up and sold to those who could 
afford to pay for them ; but the poor could have them for 
nothing, or in exchange for old clothing, meal, or anything 
he could use. 

The wants of Johnny Appleseed were few, and he cared 
little about money. He lived simply, camping out in the 
woods, or, if sleeping in a house, occupying the floor. His 
dress was the cast-off clothing he had taken in exchange 
for apple trees. In his latter years he thought even 
this second-hand raiment too luxurious and chose, as his 
principal garment, an old coffee sack in the bottom and 
sides of which he cut holes for his head and arms. 

This strange man was considered crazy by many of the 
settlers, and, indeed, some of his actions lead us to think 
that he may have been so. His work in planting trees, 
however, was of such value to the people of Ohio that they 
have since erected monuments to him. 



APPLES 



233 



Nearly all our orchard trees are now grown in nurseries, 
which are to be found in every fruit-raising section. The 
nurserymen make a business of raising young trees and 
plants for sale to those who set them out in orchards or 
gardens. In the nurseries the seeds of the most hardy of 
each kind of tree are planted in rows. They sprout quickly, 
and soon make their way through the ground. After a 
short time they are budded, in order to get the varieties of 
fruits most desired. 

This budding is an interesting process. It is based upon 
the fact that the bud of any apple or other fruit tree, if cut 
off with a part of the bark to which it is joined and slipped 
under the bark of another variety of the same tree, will 
grow into a branch which will produce fruit of the same 
kind of tree as that from which the bud came. For 
instance, if the bud of a Northern Spy be thus set into a 
Baldwin tree, the branch from that bud will grow Northern 
Spy apples, and not Baldwins. So the nurserymen set into 
each little tree, near the ground, one choice bud ; and, 
when that bud sprouts, they cut off all the other branches 
and make the tree grow from that bud only, knowing that 
its fruit will be that of the tree from which the bud comes. 
In this way they can sell trees in large numbers which are 
sure to produce the same kind of fruit. Millions of trees 
are thus budded every year, and it is from them that most 
of our choice fruit comes. 

Fruit trees are bought for planting when they are one, 
two, three, or more years old. The nurserymen put them 
up in bundles, wrapping the roots with wet moss, if they are 
to take a long railroad journey, or to wait some time before 
being planted. In the meantime, the orchard men have 



234 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



plowed their fields and fitted the ground for the trees. 
They set them out in rows, fifteen; twenty, and sometimes 
more feet apart, according to the variety, and carefully 
cultivate them from year to year. 




Apple orchard. 

In planting apple trees some orchardists make the dis- 
tance between the trees thirty-two feet, and some even 
forty feet, in order that the trees may not interfere with 
one another when full-grown. The apple tree is compara- 
tively long lived. It begins to produce fruit at from three 
to ten years of age, according to its variety ; and it will 
continue to yield if properly cared for thirty or more 
years. 

In our better orchards the trees are carefully watched. 
They are trimmed every season and are sprayed several 
times a year with some poisonous liquid which kills the 



APPLES 



235 



insects upon them and keeps them free from disease. 
Each tree is also examined to see that no worms are feed- 
ing upon its roots, and the small and imperfect apples are 
taken off in order to let the strength of the tree go into the 
best fruit. 

The apples are picked by hand in order that they may 
not be bruised. They are next sorted into sizes and then 




Picking apples. 



packed up in boxes or barrels for the markets. In harvest- 
ing some of the choice varieties, each apple is wrapped in 
tissue paper before being placed in the boxes ; and every 
box is marked with the number of apples it contains, a box 
holding from seventy to one hundred and twenty-six, ac- 
cording to size. Apples which have fallen on the ground 



236 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



are bruised and cannot be used for shipping. These are 
preserved or made into cider. 

The most of our apples are consumed at home, although 
many are sent in cold storage steamers to England and 
other parts of Europe, to South America, and the West 




Packing the apple crop. 

Indies, and even across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, 
Hawaii, China, and Japan. We are rapidly increasing the 
extent of our apple orchards and also the number of locali- 
ties where apples are commercially grown. Of all the 
orchards of the United States more than one half are de- 
voted to apples and we now have more than two hundred 
million trees. The states having the greatest number of 
apple trees are Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, 
Michigan, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, and Virginia. 



PEACHES 237 



31. PEACHES 

CHINA is the home of the peach. It came by way 
of Persia to Europe, and thence to the United 
States. 

The Chinese peaches, however, are by no means so fine 
to-day as are the American peaches, nor are they grown in 
such quantities. Persian peaches are now unknown to 
commerce, and the peach crop of Europe cannot compare 
in value and in character with ours. The climate of 
northern Europe is such that fine peaches cannot well be 
grown there out of doors. Peach orchards are few, and 
the trees must either be trained against garden walls, fac- 
ing the sun, or be cultivated in hothouses under glass. 

Even in our own country, until a generation or so ago, 
the peach crop was of no great importance. Until that 
time all our peaches came from New Jersey, Maryland, 
and the eastern shores of Lake Michigan ; and the peach- 
eating season lasted only from the middle of August until 
the latter part of September. Now we have three hundred 
different varieties of peaches, and they are grown all over 
the United States, excepting in Maine, Vermont, and the 
cold regions of the northwest beyond the Great Lakes. We 
have ripe peaches in our markets from May until Novem- 
ber. It has been found that peaches will grow almost 
everywhere, and that the Southern States will produce 
them before they are ripe farther north. There are sec- 
tions of the north that will grow late fruit ; and all together 
the several crops ripen at such widely different times that, 
by means of refrigerator or iced cars, we can have peaches 



238 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

all over the country for four or five times as long a season 
as in the past. 

Georgia, Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Cali- 
fornia are each producing more peaches than were raised 
half a century ago in our so-called peach belt ; and Con- 
necticut, which was then considered too cold for peaches, 
now yields more than Delaware. When our census offi- 
cials made their last count of Uncle Sam's orchards, he had 
all together more than one hundred million peach trees, 
and peach growing had become a great industry, employ- 
ing many thousand people and vast sums of money. 

The discovery that peaches could be cultivated profit- 
ably outside the peach belt above mentioned was largely 
due to a New England schoolboy whose father had died 
when he was quite small and who had to work out by the 
month, during vacations, to make money to help support 
his mother and to keep down the interest on the mortgage 
upon their home. One day when the boy was about twelve 
years old he was cutting corn for a farmer, on a high hill 
overlooking the beautiful Connecticut Valley, when, right 
in the midst of the corn, he found a seedling tree loaded 
down with ripe rosy peaches. He was tired from handling 
the heavy stalks, and he sat down to rest under the tree, 
pulling off some of the fruit and eating it. As he munched 
the delicious peaches, he thought how fine it would be if 
he could have an orchard full of such trees and could 
make enough from it not only to pay off the mortgage, but 
to give him all the money he needed. He then and there 
resolved to save every cent he could and to buy trees and 
plant them. 

The next year he left school and started his peach or- 



PEACHES 239 

chard on the home farm, setting out a few trees at first and 
planting more and more, as he was able to save the money 
to buy them. He raised strawberries and other small fruits 
between the rows of peach trees, to help pay his expenses, 
until the trees should be three or four years old, and should 
begin to bear fruit. All this time he was trying to learn 
where the trees would grow best, produce the most fruit, 
and be safest from the frosts which often kill the fruit buds. 
He observed that the best trees in Connecticut were on the 
sides and tops of the hills ; and he tramped around at day- 
light on the winter mornings, with a thermometer, to learn 
just which places were the coldest. He found that the tem- 
perature would vary from fifteen to twenty degrees below 
zero on the levels and in the valleys ; while, on the hillsides, 
not more than fifty feet higher, it would be only eight or ten 
degrees below zero ; and on the tops of the hills, three hun- 
dred feet above the valleys and perhaps a mile away, only 
zero. This showed him that the hills were the best places 
to plant his trees, and it was upon them that he set out his 
orchards. 

All this while the farmers were laughing at him and 
telling him he was wasting his time trying to grow peaches 
in Connecticut. The men who had a two thousand dollar 
mortgage on his home did not approve of his orchards, and 
they finally told him they could wait for their money only 
three months longer. In the meanwhile his peach trees 
had been growing in number and in size. He had now a 
large orchard in which the fruit was almost ripe ; and be- 
fore the three months were up, he marketed his crop and 
received more than ten thousand dollars for it. He paid 
off the mortgage with part of the money and put the rest 



240 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

of it into more peach trees ; and he continued to add to 
the extent of his orchards until he finally became one of 
the chief fruit growers of our country and much richer 
then he had ever hoped to be. 

Others in Connecticut who had observed his success then 
began to set out orchards, and that state is now one of 
the chief peach-raising regions of our country. This same 
man afterward went to Georgia and planted peaches 
there. He had at one time three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand trees in his Georgia orchards ; and early peaches 
raised by him were shipped to all the large cities of the 
north. Since then Georgia has become one of our best 
fruit states, and its peach trees are now numbered by 
millions. 

If we could visit a big Georgia orchard, we should find 
that peaches are by no means easy to grow. The trees 
must be started in nurseries, by planting the peach stones 
and budding the sprouts, as already described. When 
they are a year or two old, they are set out, each little tree 
being first so trimmed that it looks more like a switch than 
anything else. The trees are planted in rows, fifteen or 
twenty feet apart. They are carefully cultivated, being 
trimmed year after year. They are fed with fertilizers, and 
each tree is examined once or twice every season to see 
whether a little worm, known as the borer, is not eating 
away at its roots. Sometimes the trees are washed, to kill 
the insects upon them, and sometimes they are sprayed, 
in order to kill horrid little animals, called scales, which, 
if not destroyed, multiply so rapidly that they eventually 
ruin the tree, eating away at its bark and sucking the 
sap. 



PEACHES 



241 



As the peaches ripen, the imperfect ones are picked off, 
and the others arc thinned, in order that there may be only 
enough peaches on each tree to produce the largest and 
finest fruit. In picking peaches great care is taken that 
they be not bruised. Each picker has a small canvas bag 
marked with his name and tickets bearing his number. 



,d*< '-oil; r< ,-■; 












ifi 



Peach pickers. 

He picks the fruit into the bag and then empties it into 
a basket, putting first his ticket on the bottom. When 
the basket is full it is taken to the packing house ; and the 
ticket shows who did the picking. If any bad or bruised 
peaches are found, an inspector on horseback gallops off 
and warns the man he is not doing good work. 

The peach packing houses are immense sheds filled with 

FOODS — l6 



242 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



long tables, behind which men and women stand to sort 
the peaches as they come in. Other hands pack them as 
they are sorted, and others nail up the crates and put them 
on the refrigerator cars which take them to the markets 
all over the country. The refrigerator cars are kept 
cool by ice and the crates and baskets of peaches are so 
placed that there is a circulation of cold air about each one 
during the entire journey. Peaches that are too ripe for 
shipping are used for canning and drying. 

In the smaller orchards the peaches are loaded on 
wagons and carried to the railroad stations. Along the 




Shipping peaches from a small orchard. 

shores of Lake Michigan they are taken to Chicago by 
fast steamers, the greatest diligence being used to get 
them to the markets in the shortest possible time. 



APRICOTS, PEARS, QUINCES, CHERRIES, AND PLUMS 243 



32. APRICOTS, PEARS, QUINCES, CHERRIES, 
AND PLUMS 

APRICOTS and plums, as well as pears, quinces, and 
cherries, may be found fresh, dried, or canned, in every 
American market. The apricot resembles both the peach 
and the plum. The tree is like 
the plum tree, but the fruit, when 
ripe, looks more like the peach. 
It is as hardy as the peach, but, 
as it blooms early, it is some- 
times killed by Jack Frost. 

The apricot is supposed to 
have originated in China. It 
was carried to Europe by Alex- 
ander the Great, and centuries 
later was brought to America. 
It grows well in our Pacific Coast 
States and especially in Cali- 
fornia, where more than one 
million bushels are produced an- 
nually. The fruit is excellent 
for drying and canning, in which 
form it is shipped all over the 
world. 

Pears, cherries, and quinces 
are also largely preserved. The pear is a native of 
Europe. It was first brought to the United States about 
1630, when a tree was planted near Governor Endicott's 
house in Boston. It now ranks fourth among our orchard 




Apricots. 



244 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



fruits and is grown commercially in all our states from New 
England to the Great Lakes, and also in Texas, Michigan, 
California, Washington, and Oregon, the chief pear-grow- 
ing states being California, New York, Michigan, and 




Sorting cherries for the markets. 



Texas. The pear, like the apple, will keep quite a long 
time ; and, like the peach, it is delicious when canned. 

The same is true of the quince, which also resembles 
somewhat both the pear and the apple, but which cannot 
be eaten until cooked. The quince is the least important 
of our orchard fruits, and, although it has been cultivated 
for two thousand years, it has almost no place as an article 
of commerce. 

Cherries are very generally grown in our country. They 



APRICOTS, PEARS, QUINCES, CHERRIES, AND PLUMS 245 

arc eaten fresh and are also especially valuable for canning 
and preserving. They are raised in large quantities in 
P2urope and also in Japan and China. The Japanese have 
certain varieties of cherries which they cultivate only for 
their flowers. In cherry blossom season they hold picnics 
under the trees, and the boys and girls, as well as the 
older people, write verses about the beauties of nature 
which they tie to the cherry tree branches. 

Far more important than any other of our orchard 
fruits, excepting the apple and peach, is the plum. It 
grows well in the United States ; and certain varieties, 
from which prunes are made, thrive to such an extent in 
California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, that we pro- 
duce many million pounds of dried prunes every year and 
even export them to other countries. 

The plum is a near relative of the peach, but is 
distinguished from it by the character of its flesh, its 
smooth skin, and its small, unwrinkled stone. It is a 
native of many parts of the temperate zone and was 
found growing in North America when the New World 
was discovered. It is of many varieties, some of the most 
peculiar of which are found in Japan and China. At 
Kowshing, China, for instance, grow delicious plums, 
each of which has a dimple in one cheek. While there 
some years ago, my guide told me the story of how this 
dimple originated. He said: — 

" Centuries ago we had here in Kowshing a princess 
noted for her beauty and gentle ways. She was 
fond of fruit, and one day, while eating some plums, 
she picked out an especially fine one and pressed her 
dainty little finger into it. The pressure left a dimple. 



246 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Upon tasting the plum, she found it so delicious that 
she saved the stone and planted it. This in time grew 
into a tree which bore plums equally sweet ; but each 
of the new plums, strange to say, had a dimple in its 
side. The plums were so fine that they became famous 
throughout China, and buds from that tree were carried 
everywhere." 

There are many widely different varieties of plums. 
Some are sweet, and some sour, some large, and some 
small. It is only the large sweet varieties which are used 
for prunes, and the finest prune plums still come from 
Europe. France, Germany, Servia, Spain, Austria, and 
South Africa are all prune-producing regions. France 
was for a long time the chief prune-growing country of 
the world. Within the past generation, however, we have 
begun to produce prunes in our Pacific Coast States, and 
we now market more than any other one country. There 
are California valleys which are almost covered with prune 
orchards ; and delicious prunes are commercially grown in 
Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 

In making prunes, the fruit is picked by hand and care- 
fully washed in warm water. All the imperfect plums are 
taken out and the remainder are sorted according to size. 
They are next dipped in a mild solution of lye to crack 
the skin, so that the heat of the sun can penetrate the 
pulp, and they are then spread out upon long wicker trays 
or boxes about a yard wide and set in the sun for a week 
or longer to cure. Several times a day men go about and 
stir them, rolling them over and over, so that they may be 
evenly cured on all sides. When thoroughly dried, they 
are taken back to the packing houses and stored in bins, 



APRICOTS, PEARS, QUINCES, CHERRIES, AND PLUMS 247 

until the rush of the picking and curing season is over. 
After this they are again sorted and graded and packed 
up in boxes, by machinery and by hand, and shipped to 
the markets. 

In the more fancy varieties, the boxes have glass lids, 
and the primes are fitted in, one by one, so carefully that 




Plums drying for prunes. 

they lie in rows. Many school children are employed in 
California in picking and curing this fruit. The work can 
be carried on during vacations, and girls and boys and 
even students from high schools and universities go out 
from the cities to aid in the harvest. In some orchards 
the prunes are dried over a fire, and in certain parts of 
Europe they are partially cooked before they are dried. 



248 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



33. GRAPES 

WE want to know something about our grape indus- 
try. It is more extensive in California than any- 
where else in the United States. This state has more than 
one hundred million vines, and it raises enough grapes in 
one year to give ten pounds to every man and woman and 
boy and girl in the United States, including the babies. 

The grape is one of the oldest of cultivated plants. 
The ancients considered it, like the olive, the symbol of 
civilized life, and the Greeks and Romans paid worship to 
Bacchus, the God of the Vine. The grape grows wild in 
the Mediterranean countries of Europe, and also in some 
parts of Asia. When our forefathers came to America, it 
was found all along the coasts of our country from Massa- 
chusetts to Florida, and the Indians ate grapes, fresh and 
dried. 

The cultivation of grapes dates back to the beginning of 
history. They were eaten by the early Egyptians and 
were introduced into England by the Romans. They are 
now raised in almost every part of Europe ; and in France, 
Italy, and some other countries they form a principal crop. 
France produces so much wine every year that she could 
give every inhabitant of the world a gallon and have some 
left over. Italy makes about half as much wine as France, 
and Spain half as much as Italy. In our country we raise 
grapes to eat fresh or as raisins and also for making wine. 
We do not, however, lead as a wine-growing country ; for 
we are not, as a nation, wine drinkers, and we think it is 
much better for us that this is the case. 



GRAPES 



249 



To-day grapes are raised commercially in New York, 
Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, and in all the Southern States 
from North Carolina to Texas, and also in California, 
New Mexico, and Arizona. Many of our grapes, such 
as the Scuppernong and Catawba, are the offsprings of 
those found growing wild when our forefathers came to 




A vineyard in France. 



this country, and others, especially those of California, 
come from the choicest grapevines of Europe. 

Our first attempt at grape culture was made in Virginia 
in 16 10 by a Frenchman, who planted a vineyard at 
Jamestown. About ten years later more Frenchmen came 
over ; and when Thomas Jefferson was President Con- 
gress gave a grant of land to some immigrants from 



250 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Switzerland who wished to try grape growing in southern 
Indiana on the Ohio River. These enterprises, however, 
were not successful ; but vineyards set out near Cincin- 
nati some years later did better ; and now the grape is 
cultivated in almost all parts of the United States. We 
have learned what localities are best fitted for grape rais- 
ing ; and by the use of cold storage and other methods, 
we are able so to transport and keep grapes that we have 
them to eat during the greater part of the year. 

In order that the grapevine may be successfully grown, 
it must have plenty of sun, not too much moisture, and 
an excellent soil. These conditions are just right in 
California. The state runs north and south through ten 
degrees of latitude ; it has mountains, hills, slopes, rivers, 
and valleys, giving it such a variety of temperature and 
of soil that it can raise almost any kind of grapes for eat- 
ing, for raisins, or for wines. 

Grapevines are grown from cuttings. Slips of the ripe 
wood, cut off in the fall, are buried in the ground until the 
following spring, when they are planted in nurseries. They 
soon sprout and a little later they are set out in the vine- 
yards. The vines are carefully cultivated, being trimmed 
back from year to year. In the eastern parts of the United 
States they are frequently grown over arbors or on trellises ; 
but in California each vine stands alone, out in the field, 
often without a stake or anything to support it. 

The vines begin to bear at about two years of age, and 
every year after this they are cut back to the trunk, so 
that the new branches trail out on all sides on the ground. 
After a few years' pruning, the trunk grows stout and 
stubby, like the body of a small oak tree ; and it is seldom 



CRAPES 



251 



more than two or three feet in height, although it may be 
eight or nine inches thick. 

But we shall see this better in the vineyards. Let us 
suppose that we are in Fresno County, California, where 
so many grapes are raised that if one year's crop could be 
distributed over the United States, every one of us might 
have a handful and a quantity be left over. This is one 

























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In California each vine stands alone. 



of our chief raisin-making regions, and we shall be able 
to see the people drying the grapes and packing them for 
the market. 

The time of our visit is midsummer. How hot it is ! 
The sun shines down like a ball of fire, and the heat waves 
are dancing above the green vines. The country is flat, 
and, by climbing to the top of one of the packing houses, 



252 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

we can see the vines reaching away for miles on each 
side. The land is almost level. It is cut up by irrigating 
canals, and white streams are flowing here and there 
amongst the green leaves. There are two thousand miles 
of canals in this region, with two or three times as many 
miles of ditches running out from them to water the grapes. 

We come down from the roof of the packing house and 
walk through one of the vineyards. The vines are about 
as high as our waists, and their great branches, loaded with 
bunches of almost transparent white and green grapes, lie 
upon the ground, so that one might think they would be 
baked by the sun. Pick up some of the ripe fruit and 
taste it. How sweet ! This variety is known as the 
White Muscat. It is a large grape, with a soft thin skin 
and a hard plump pulp, so full of sugar that it is especially 
good for raisins. 

But let us go to the other side of the vineyard and 
watch the men and boys picking the fruit. Each has a 
tray about two feet long and three feet wide. He lays 
the ripe bunches carefully upon this, handling each bunch 
by its stem in order not to injure the bloom on the grapes 
nor bruise them, as he transfers them from the vine to the 
tray. He cuts off the bunches with a sharp curved knife 
and then snips away any defective berries with a pair of 
scissors, laying the bunches carefully down. The tray will 
hold twenty-five pounds of grapes, and these, when dried, 
will yield just about five pounds of raisins. 

When his tray is full, the man carries it to one side 
and so places it that the full rays of the sun will shine 
upon it all day long. It is not disturbed for a week or 
longer ; and then the half-dried grapes are turned by 



GRAPES 253 

placing an empty tray over the full one and inverting the 
latter. The trays fit so closely that the grapes may be 
turned in this way without handling. They are allowed to 
remain in the sun for a few days longer ; then they are 
taken to the packing house and put into sweat boxes, which 




Picking grapes for raisins in California. 

even the moisture and give the grapes the aroma that the 
lover of raisins enjoys almost as much as the taste. 

After this sweating process, the grapes are taken out 
and packed. The bunches are first separated from the loose 
grapes and then carefully placed in boxes in layers. The 
bunches that are too small for this purpose are put into a 
stemming machine, from which they are carried to a series 



254 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

of sifters ; and they are finally sold as crown raisins, the 
loose raisins we use for cooking. 

Leaving this vineyard, we go to others, finding hun- 
dreds of men, women, and children gathering grapes. In 
some places the grapes are of a smaller variety, without 
seeds, known as Sultanas, from which seedless raisins are 
made ; and in others they are Muskats, grown upon vines 
which have been brought to California from Chile, where 
the climate and soil are very similar to the climate and 
soil of California. 

Until within comparatively recent years, all the raisins 
used in the United States were imported from Europe. 
They came from the warm countries along the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, and especially from southeastern Spain, a region 
which is noted for the Malaga grape, and which is to-day 
one of the raisin-producing parts of the world. If we could 
go there, we would find the grapes cultivated by very 
similar methods to those used in California. They are 
allowed to lie on the ground, and are carefully picked. 
They are not only dried in the sun, as here, but in some 
places are also cured by steam, the cut grapes being put 
into baskets and brought on the backs of donkeys to the 
drying places. In other Spanish vineyards the grapes are 
made into raisins by dipping them in boiling lye, which 
wrinkles the skin and cures the flesh. 

When the Californians first tried to dry raisins they 
were not successful. They did not know what grapes to 
use nor just how to cure them ; but they sent men to the 
countries along the Mediterranean and elsewhere to learn 
the best methods of raisin making, and to-day our raisins 
are as delicious as any in the world. 



BERK IKS 



255 



In traveling over California we visit vineyards where the 
ripe grapes are gathered and their juice squeezed out to 
be made into wine. The juice is allowed to ferment and 
is then carefully stored in cellars for a time to cure, after 
which it is put into bottles or casks and shipped to the 
markets. 



3*KC 



34. BERRIES 

WE have many small fruits which are grown in large 
quantities, some of which are eaten fresh, and 
others are dried, canned, or otherwise preserved for the 
table. 

Of these the chief are strawberries, blackberries, raspber- 
ries, currants, gooseber- 
ries, and cranberries, all 
of which, with the excep- 
tion of cranberries, are 
to be found growing in 
almost every part of the 
United States. There are 
so many berries brought 
to our markets that they 
annually sell for one tenth 
as much as our vegetables. 
Several hundred thousand acres are devoted to raising 
them, and the largest part of them are grown in thickly 
populated neighborhoods, in such states as New York, 
Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois, Indiana, New 
Jersey, and Missouri. 




Strawberries. 



256 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

We have all eaten strawberries. They are the most 
important of the small fruits, this crop giving employment 
to more men and bringing in more money than any of the 
others. They may be grown anywhere in America from 
Florida to Alaska; and even in the highlands of Mexico 
there are climates where strawberries are ripe all the year 
round. 

The strawberry grows wild in many parts of the United 
States. It may be found in fields or in woods and often 
along the fence corners. It is improved by cultivation, 
however, and the greater part of our product comes from 
beds of choice varieties, where the vines are carefully cul- 
tivated and the berries picked in baskets and packed in 
crates for shipment to the markets. Strawberries must be 
eaten a short time after they are picked, but, since re- 
frigerator cars have been invented, it is possible to send 
them long distances. We have strawberry beds in our 
Southern States from which the early ripening berries are 
shipped in great quantities to the markets. Later in the 
year, the berries from the colder parts of the country come 
in, so that our strawberry season now lasts several months. 

Have you ever visited the Blue Ridge Mountains? If 
you will go there at the right time, you may have all the 
blackberries and raspberries you can eat, for the picking. 
These fruits grow wild throughout the greater part of the 
Appalachian Chain and in many other places. They are 
also cultivated, and it is the cultivated varieties that give us 
the finest fruit. Both blackberries and raspberries are used 
largely for canning, and also for making jellies and jams. 

Currants and gooseberries are grown almost altogether 
for canning. Gooseberries are often eaten in pies and in 



BERRIES 



257 



tarts; and we remember how proud Oliver Goldsmith's 
Vicar of Wakefield was of his wife's home-made goose- 
berry wine. The gooseberry is especially fine in England, 
where it has been cultivated for hundreds of years. It is 
raised in the northern parts of our country, and especially 
in Indiana, which might be called our chief gooseberry 
state. 

More important still is the currant, which we use in 
large quantities for jellies. We have eight different states 
each producing more than a million quarts of currant jelly 
every year. 

The currant is found throughout our Northern States, in 
northern Europe, and also in Asia, where the delicious 
red currant of the Himalaya Mountains thrives as high as 
two miles or more above the sea. 

In addition to these small fruits, we have some others, 
such as huckleberries and elderberries, which, although 
eaten to a considerable extent both fresh and canned, are 
of little value in commerce. 

We have one berry which is odder, perhaps, than any 
of the others. It is of about the size of a common cherry, 
and so tart that if cooked without sugar it sets one's teeth 
on edge. It always makes its appearance upon our tables 
at Thanksgiving and Christmas, being used as a sauce 
with roast turkey or chicken. I refer to the cranberry, of 
which we produce about a million bushels a year, shipping 
them to all parts of our country. 

The cranberry is a native of the United States and of 
Europe, but some of our varieties are larger and better 
than those of the Old World. They are found in the low 
boggy lands along the Atlantic Coast from Maine to New 

POODS — 17 



258 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



Jersey, in parts of the Alleghany Mountains, and also in 
the swamps of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 

Cranberries grow wild in some places, and in others 
upon cultivated vines. More than half of our crop is now 
raised in Massachusetts, and about one fourth of it in New 
Jersey. Indeed, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wiscon- 





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Gathering cranberries. 

sin grow more than ninety per cent of these berries, a com- 
paratively small area being devoted to the industry. The 
reason for this is the peculiar conditions necessary to cran- 
berry culture. I venture to say that none of us has ever 
seen any other farm so odd as a cranberry farm. The land 
chosen must be low and boggy and so situated that the 
vines may be flooded at certain times of the year. The 



ORANGES, LEMONS, LIMES, POMELOS, CITRON, ETC. 259 

soil must first be cleaned of bushes and other vegetation 
and then covered with a layer of sand, to keep the earth 
beneath damp and cool and to prevent other things from 
growing. 

The plants are raised both from seeds and from cuttings, 
the sprouts being set out in rows, about fourteen inches 
apart. After planting, the grass and weeds must be kept 
down and the beds flooded from time to time. As the 
vines grow, they spread and run over the ground some- 
what like strawberry vines. When they are about three 
years of age they begin to produce fruit. 

The cranberry blossoms appear in the early summer, and 
the berries are ripe in the fall. They are gathered by hand 
or by little rake scoops and are cleaned and sorted and 
then packed in barrels and crates for the market. The 
chief distributing points are New York, Philadelphia, 
Boston, Baltimore, and Chicago. The berries will keep 
for some weeks, and in the late fall they may be found on 
sale in almost every grocery store. 

35- ORANGES, LEMONS, LIMES, POMELOS, 
CITRON, ETC. 

WE are again in California this morning, although in 
different surroundings from where we saw grapes 
made into raisins. We are traveling through orchards of 
beautiful trees, whose green leaves shine as though var- 
nished. In some orchards golden balls are peeping, like 
eyes, out of the leaves, and in others the trees are loaded 
with oval fruit of pale yellow or green. We are in the 



26o 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



great citrus fruit region of the Pacific Coast, where oranges 
and lemons enough to fill millions of boxes are raised every 
year. 

Citrus fruits are different from any of the fruits we 
have yet examined, but they are, nevertheless, amongst 

the most delicious that come on 
our tables. What is finer than a 
great round yellow orange full 
of juice, or a pomelo ("grape 
fruit") sliced in half and pow- 
dered with sugar ? On a hot 
day there is nothing so cooling 
as a glass of iced lemonade; and 
we all delight in the fruit cake 
and the plum pudding, the flavor 
of which is due largely to the 
citron within. Citrus fruits belong 
to a family from southern Asia 
which includes oranges, lemons, 
and limes, and also pomelos, citrons, and the bergamot 
used for perfumery. All these have a pulp with a sour, 
sweet, or bitter juice, a spongy or leathery rind, and smooth 
seeds. The leaves and the rind are full of oil, and the 
flowers also contain oil and have a peculiar fragrance. 

Many of these fruits grow wild in India and in other 
warm parts of Asia; some of them have spines or thorns; 
and some have become very different through cultivation 
from what they originally were. It is said that the orange 
was once a berry, about as big as a marble, bitter, and full 
of seeds, and that it has been brought to its present size and 
flavor by cultivation and experiment throughout the ages. 




Oranges. 



ORANGES, LEMONS, LIMES, POMELOS, CITRON, ETC. 261 

Some people think that the apple of the Garden of Eden 
was really an orange ; and there is a kind of a pomelo sold 
in Europe which is called the forbidden fruit. Ceylon also 
has a pulpy forbidden fruit which looks as though a bite 
had been taken out of it ; and the natives say it was 
originally round and good to eat, but since Eve sinned it 
has always showed the mark of her bite and has been 
poisonous. 

The chief citrus fruits grown in the United States are 
oranges, lemons, limes, and pomelos or grape fruit. They 
require about the same climate and soil, and are found in 
the tropics and the warmer parts of the temperate zones, 
all over the world. Oranges and lemons are largely culti- 
vated in Portugal, Spain, Sicily, and other countries in and 
about the Mediterranean Sea. Asia Minor has delicious 
oranges, and those from Jaffa, the chief port of Palestine, 
are excellent. Oranges thrive in Porto Rico and in 
others of the West Indies, in Hawaii and in the Philippine 
Islands; and there are great quantities of them grown in 
Brazil, Paraguay, and some other South American coun- 
tries. They are produced in China and Japan and through- 
out southern Asia, as well as in north and south Africa, 
and on almost all the islands of the South Seas. Our 
chief orange-growing regions are in Florida and California, 
the latter state producing the larger part of our crop. The 
same is true of our lemons and pomelos, so that we can 
learn more about these fruits in California than anywhere 
else. 

Suppose we take a look at a great orange orchard, now 
ready for harvest. Here is one where they are picking the 
crop. They have brought wagon loads of boxes and scat- 



262 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



tered them about under the trees. There are a score of 
pickers at work. Each has a sack fastened by a strap over 
his shoulders, into which he puts the ripe oranges, as he 
cuts them from the trees. He does not pull them off as 
we do apples, peaches, and pears ; for the wound that 
would be thus left in the fruit would be liable to cause rot. 
Notice how carefully the men work. They drop the 




Picking oranges in California. 



oranges into the sack so gently that they are not bruised; 
and they empty the sacks slowly into the boxes. 

When the boxes are filled they are carried in spring 
wagons to the packing houses. There is a load going out 
now, and if we follow it we can see how the fruit is pre- 
pared for the market. We soon reach the packing estab- 
lishment, a long low shed, in and about which many men 
and women, as well as boys and girls, are at work. The 



ORANGES, LEMON'S, LIMES, POMELOS, CITRON, ETC. 263 

fruit first goes into the hands of the washers. Every 
orange must be well scrubbed before it is packed. In 
some places this work is done by boys and girls who 
scour the fruit with rough brushes to get the dirt, dust, and 
mold off; and in other places it is done by machinery which 
brushes the fruit as it rolls along in a stream of water. 

After washing, the oranges are put into a trough, down 
which they roll into grading machines which separate them 
according to size. They are next carried into the shed to 
be packed. In the establishment we are visiting this work 
is done by Chinese, although in many other places it is 
performed by Americans. The Chinese have long slender 
fingers and are noted for their skill in handling fruit of 
all kinds. They take up each orange, wrap it in a piece 
of tissue paper, upon which is printed the trade-mark of 
the shipper, and then lay it carefully in a box. Each box 
is just two feet long, one foot wide, and one foot deep. 
The oranges packed in one box are of about the same size; 
and the boxes contain a larger or smaller number of oranges, 
according to the grade of the fruit. Some of the fruit is so 
large that sixty oranges will just fill a box, and some so 
small that three hundred are required to occupy the same 
space. The oranges are so fitted in that they rise a little 
above the sides of the box; and the covers are pressed 
down into place so carefully that the fruit is squeezed 
close together, but is not injured. 

After this the boxes are nailed up and loaded upon the 
cars for their long journey over the Rocky Mountain pla- 
teau to the markets. The cars are well ventilated, the 
boxes being so arranged that the air can circulate freely 
among them ; and, if it is warm, iced cars are used. 



264 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Oranges are sent from Florida to the north in much the 
same way. The Florida fruit is delicious, and it is con- 
sumed in large quantities in the eastern part of our coun- 
try. We also import many oranges from the West Indies 
and from the lands in and about the Mediterranean Sea. 
The fruit keeps well, and it is often several weeks between 
the time of picking and eating. 

During our stay the manager chats with us about 
orange raising. He tells us his trees originally came from 
the seeds of the hardier varieties, which are sown in nurs- 
eries, and that they are budded for choice fruit before 
planting. About two years after budding, they are ready 
for setting out and are then planted about twenty feet 
apart in the orchards. After this they must be well culti- 
vated and kept clean of weeds. Many of the orchards are 
irrigated, a basin about ten feet square being dug about 
each tree, into which, from time to time, the water is 
turned. 

An orange tree begins to bear at four years of age, 
and if properly trimmed and cared for, it will produce 
five hundred or more oranges every year for a generation 
or so. Indeed, it is said that there are orange trees sev- 
eral hundred years old which are still yielding fruit. 

Oranges are of many varieties. In some the skin is 
tight to the pulp and in others, such as the mandarin and 
the tangerine, it is so loose that it may be pulled off like 
a glove, such kinds being called kid glove oranges. Some 
oranges are full of seeds, and others have no seeds what- 
ever. The navel orange is a seedless orange. It was 
first brought to the United States from Bahia, Brazil, in 
the shape of a cutting, and planted in our Agricultural 



ORANGES, LEMONS, LIMES, POMELOS, CITRON, ETC. 265 

Gardens in Washington. In due time the cutting became 
a tree and produced such delicious fruit that buds from it 
were sent to California ; and thereby originated the navel 
orange industry, which now forms one of the most prosper- 
ous branches of our citrus fruit business. 

Our next few days are spent in wandering about from 
one lemon grove to another. Lemon trees are not quite 




Lemon pickers in California. 

so high as orange trees, but they look much the same. 
Their blossoms are purplish on the outside, and they smell 
less sweet than those of the orange. The fruit is light 
yellow ; and the green lemons fairly set our teeth on edge, 
as we taste them. 

Lemon trees are grown from lemon buds, set into seed- 
ling sour-orange sprouts. The trees are planted like the 



266 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



orange, and the fruit is gathered in about the same way, 
save that each picker has a steel ring about two and one- 
fourth inches wide. He passes this ring over each lemon 
before cutting its stem, in order to get just the right size 
demanded by the market. People do not want large 
lemons, and the kinds most desired are of such a size that 
it takes from three hundred and sixty to four hundred and 




Grading lemons. 

twenty of them to fill a box. If the lemons fit the ring 
they are picked, no matter whether they are green or 
ripe, although all the ripe ones are picked anyway. The 
ripe lemons are sometimes shipped at once to the market, 
while the green ones are piled away in boxes in the ware- 
houses to ripen. It usually requires one or two months to 
fit a lemon for the market. 

Lemons, like oranges, have to be washed. They must 
be carefully packed. When loaded, long strips of wood 



PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS 267 

are nailed across the cars in order that the boxes may not 
be jarred on their way over the continent. Lemons usually 
ripen in winter, but the demand for them in our country 
is not great until summer, so they are often held until then. 

The lime might be called the lemon's sour little sister. 
It grows wild in Malaysia and India ; and the trees are so 
thorny that they are sometimes used as a hedge. Limes 
are cultivated in the West Indies, and also to some extent 
in Florida. The fruit has a thin skin and a light yellow 
pulp, full of an acid juice, from which is made a delicious 
drink similar to lemonade. 

The pomelo or grape-fruit tree looks much like an 
orange tree, and it is grown and marketed in about the 
same way. Its fruit is several times as large as the 
largest orange. It is of a light yellow color and it con- 
tains a pulp which is somewhat acid and which, at the 
same time, has a bitter taste which many people like. It 
is largely used throughout our country and elsewhere as 
a breakfast fruit, and also for dessert. It is grown in 
Florida and California. 



o&ic 



36. PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS 

TO-DAY we shall consider two fruits of warm climates 
which are not found on bushes or trees. They re- 
semble vegetables in that one grows on a stalk in a way 
not unlike a cabbage, and the other grows in great bunches 
on a plant which shoots up to a height of fifteen or more 
feet. Nevertheless, the first of these fruits is one of the 
most delicious, and the second one of the most useful, 



268 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

known to mankind. One is the pineapple and the other 
the banana. 

The pineapple is a native of tropical America. It was 
taken to Europe by the Spaniards, and, as early as the 
seventeenth century, was cultivated in Holland and in 
England. It had to be grown in glass houses, however, 
and was too costly to be eaten by any but the nobles and 
other rich people. To-day pineapples are found in nearly 
all the markets of this country and Europe. They are 
raised in the West Indies and in the Bahamas for export 
to the United States, and are sent from our Hawaiian Is- 
lands to San Francisco. We also raise some in Florida 
and California. The pineapples of Europe come chiefly 
from the Azores, the West Indies, and parts of North 
Africa ; while the Australian markets are supplied by 
those parts of Queensland which lie near the Equator. 

Pineapples will not grow except in warm climates. They 
are a tropical and subtropical fruit, which Jack Frost kills 
when it comes within his reach. Our Florida pineapple 
plantations are in the southern part of that state ; and 
even there, the pineapples are often grown under sheds to 
guard them from the cold. In Porto Rico and Hawaii 
they are raised out of doors, as they are in most other trop- 
ical countries. 

Suppose we go to Cuba and visit a great pineapple 
plantation. It is only a few hours' ride from Florida 
across to Havana, where we can get a railroad which will 
take us right to the pineapple fields. The farm we select 
belongs to an American, who ships his fruit to New York, 
Tampa, and New Orleans, whence it is sent to our interior 
cities. 



PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS 



269 



Stand with me in the midst of the plantation. We are 
surrounded by hundreds of acres of plants. They stretch 
out on all sides of us almost as far as our eyes can reach, 
forming a carpet of reddish bronze, made up of millions 
of plants bearing ripe fruit. Close to us the pineapples 
are distinct, and we can see the great red and yellow fruit, 




A pineapple plantation in Cuba. 



each surrounded by its long green cactus-like leaves, 
tipped with crimson. Farther away the pineapples and 
leaves seem blended together ; and the whole field, in the 
distance, looks like a gorgeous cloth more splendid than 
the dress of any queen, reaching on and out on every side. 
The pineapples are in rows, but they are set so close 
together that it is safe to say there are a million or so 



270 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



growing within the range of our eyes. That long low 
building in the center of the orchard is the packing shed. 
There the fruit is gathered when ripe and nailed up in 
crates, which go by the railroad to the steamers loading 
for the United States. The pineapples are planted by 
setting out the slips, or suckers, which grow about the 




Packing pineapples for shipment. 

base or the bunch of leaves at the top of the fruit. They 
are carefully cultivated until they begin to bear and for 
some time thereafter ; although a plantation will last sev- 
eral years without replanting. The fruit is picked green, 
and ripens on its way to the market. Ordinary pineapples 
are four or five inches thick and from six to ten inches long ; 
but the larger specimens often weigh as much as fifteen, 
and sometimes twenty, and even more, pounds apiece. 



PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS 27 1 

Leaving our pineapple plantation, we cross Cuba to the 
northeastern coast about Nipe Bay. Here are some of 
the largest banana plantations of the world. There are 
millions of plants, covering thousands of acres, and when 
the fruit is ripe, great ships loaded with it are dispatched 
regularly to New York. 

In the distance, the bananas make us think of fields of 
green corn rising and falling in the wind, but as we come 
closer we see that each stalk is a great plant with a 
green trunk, almost a foot thick at the bottom and rising 
upward eight or ten feet, before the wide leaves, some of 
which are ten feet long, extend out like palm leaves and 
bend over. Some of the plants have suckers, like corn 
suckers, springing out of the ground at their roots, and 
often two or three plants are growing together. The rows 
are not more than six feet apart ; and walking through 
the plantation is like making our way through a forest of 
green trunks upholding these wide green leaves which 
meet overhead and shut out the sun. 

There is a banana plant in blossom. I venture to say 
none of us has ever seen such a blossom before. It looks 
more like a great bud than a flower. It is six inches long 
and, at its base, as big around as my arm. Just back of it, 
sprouting out from the place where the leaves join the 
trunk, is a great bunch of bananas, the blossom ending 
the bunch. The stem of the bunch hangs down, and 
the bananas themselves grow upward, and not downward, 
as many suppose. Let us stop and count the bananas on 
that bunch. It has seventy-four. On a larger plant farther 
over is a bunch containing more than a hundred, while on 
other plants are smaller bunches having fifty or less. 



272 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

This plantation is three years of age. It was set out 
from suckers like those we see at the roots, and it has been 
well cultivated until now. There are no weeds anywhere, 
and the plants are kept free from grass. Each plant bears 




The bananas grow upward. 

but one bunch and then dies, but the sprouts at the base 
grow up year after year, so that a plantation lasts a long 
time. 

In harvesting bananas the plant is chopped almost in 
half. As it falls, it is caught and the bunch of bananas is 
cut off ; after which the plant is chopped down to allow the 
sprouts at the foot to secure the full strength of the roots. 

As we go onward, we come to a place where the men 
are gathering the fruit. The bunches are cut while the 



PINEAPPLES AND BANANAS 



273 



fruit is still green. There is not a ripe or yellow banana 
among them. A little later we watch the loading of a 
steamer, and are told that the fruit will be still green when 
taken off in New York, and that it will not turn yellow 
until about the time it reaches the market stands. 
Bananas will keep easily 
for ten or twelve days, 
and they are cut green 
in order that they may 
stand the journey to all 
parts of our country. 

The banana, as used by 
us, is a luxury. In many 
parts of the world it forms 
the principal food. It is 
eaten in all tropical coun- 
tries, and some savage 
and semicivilized people 
have, at times, little else. 
This is so in nearly all 
the equatorial islands, in 
the Dutch East Indies, 
Malaysia, and in many 
parts of equatorial Africa. 

The banana gives the native of central Africa not only 
his food and drink, but his string, soap, and clothing. He 
eats the green fruit of the plantain, which is closely allied 
to the banana, cooked as a vegetable, and when ripe it 
serves as a dessert. With him bananas largely take the 
place of wheat and corn, for he steams them and makes 
them up into flour. He uses banana leaves to thatch his 

FOODS — 18 




Brazilian banana peddler. 



274 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

house, and makes them answer the purposes of paper, 
tablecloths, and napkins. The stems are sometimes made 
into fences, and the pith is scraped out and used as a 
sponge. The fibers form excellent string, and they are 
also woven into sun hats and shields. 

In some parts of the world savages make an intoxicat- 
ing drink from the banana which might be called banana 
brandy, and also another liquor somewhat like beer. There 
are other drinks made from this fruit which are not intoxi- 
cating at all. Not only in Africa, but in parts of the West 
Indies and elsewhere, if the banana crop is good, the na- 
tives are prosperous ; and, if it fails, they are likely to 
suffer from want. 

37. OLIVES AND VEGETABLE OILS 

IN ancient times there was a contest between Minerva, 
the Goddess of Wisdom, and Neptune, the God of the 
Sea, as to which should have the Greek city of Athens 
under his protection. The other gods came together and 
decided that this right should be given to the one who 
could offer the gift most useful to man. Thereupon Nep- 
tune brought forth the horse, and Minerva, the olive tree. 
The gods gave their judgment that the olive was the more 
useful, and Athens was awarded to Minerva, who sometimes 
goes by the name of Pallas Athene. 

The olive is one of the oldest of fruits. The dove 
which Noah sent forth from the ark when the floods were 
abating came back with an olive leaf in its mouth ; and 
we read of olives being used in early times in the countries 



OLIVES AND VEGETABLE OILS 275 

about the Mediterranean Sea. It is said that they came 
originally from southern Europe and Asia Minor. The 
Atlas regions of northern Africa seem to be peculiarly fitted 
for them, and the same is true of the southern part of the 
great central valley of California and of certain regions in 
Mexico and Peru. Italy raises more olives than any other 
country, and they are also grown for export in Algeria and 
Tunis, and in France, Spain, Greece, and Asia Minor. 
We still import olives and olive oil from Italy and Spain, 
although we now have large olive orchards on the Pacific 
Coast and are raising quantities of olives every year. 

Suppose we visit one of these orchards in southern 
California. The trees are loaded with fruit that looks some- 
what like plums, but the leaves are of a darker green than 
the plum tree, and the trunks and branches are twisted in 
all sorts of shapes, looking as though they had been made 
so by the wind. 

Olive trees are planted from cuttings, sprouts, or from the 
gnarled woody bulbs on the base of the trunk. They are 
set out in orchards, about thirty or forty feet apart, and 
begin to bear fruit at two or three years of age, although 
it is not until they are seven years old that they yield profit- 
able crops. They bear more fruit as they grow older, 
until they are about thirty years old. At ten years of age 
a good tree may have six or seven gallons of olives upon it, 
and later it may produce as much as fifty gallons. 

The olive is very long lived. There are some trees in 
California which were planted before we signed our Declara- 
tion of Independence ; and in southern Europe are many 
which are known to be several hundred years old. The 
people there claim that the olive tree will live a thousand 



276 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



years, and they have a saying that the man who plants olives 
lays up riches for his children's children. 

In California the olive orchards are carefully cultivated. 
The one we are visiting is about twenty years old ; but it 
is still plowed several times a year and is kept free from 
weeds. The trees are now loaded with fruit, and the 



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Picking olives in California. 

people are harvesting the crop. A number of men and 
women, together with many boys and girls, are moving 
about under the trees. Some hold out sheets of canvas, 
while others shake each limb and twig, so that the olives 
fall into the sheets. The fruit that remains on the trees is 
plucked by hand. 

After picking, the olives are sorted. Some of them are 



OLIVES AND VEGETABLE OILS 



277 



almost black, while others are light brown or dark green. 
The black olives are ripe and ready to be pressed into oil. 
The green ones will be used for pickling ; they will be 
graded, and those of the same size will be put up in bot- 
tles or tubs and sold all over the country. Ripe olives are 
also pickled, but they are black when bottled. 

Suppose we follow that load of ripe fruit which they are 
taking off to the oil mill. We go with the wagon and see 




Grading olives according to size. 



the black olives thrown into a sort of mortar, in which 
is a heavy stone, so moved around by a gas engine that it 
crushes the olives to paste. After being thoroughly crushed, 
they are taken out and packed by hand into flat bags made 
of matting, each of which holds about a half bushel. 
These mats are piled, one on top of the other, in a press 
which works so gradually that they must remain in it for 
several hours before all the juice, water, and oil are squeezed 



278 • FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

out. The oil which comes first is the best. It is almost 
clear white. It is called virgin oil and is used chiefly for 
salads. That which comes later is of a lower grade, and 
the last is the poorest. 

In some orchards the fruit is dried in the sun or by arti- 
ficial heat before it is pressed, and the pulp is pressed again 
and again for the different grades of oil. Before the last 
pressing it is soaked with hot water, and the result is a low 
grade oil, used for the table and also for machinery and 
burning. 

After the oil has been taken out of the pulp, it is drawn 
off carefully, filtered, and stored in a cool dark place 
ready for bottling. If exposed to light or heat, it soon 
becomes rancid, and the greatest care is taken to keep 
it sweet and cool. 

We use olive oil for salads and also in manufacturing 
soap and tobacco and for mechanical purposes. We 
import a great quantity every year, in addition to that 
which we raise ourselves. 

In southern Europe and in the other lands about the 
Mediterranean Sea olive oil, to a large extent, takes the 
place of butter. It is used not only in salads, but upon 
bread and vegetables and for cooking. In some locali- 
ties olives and olive oil serve even for meat and bread ; 
and many a Spaniard, when upon a long journey, ties a 
wicker basket of this fruit to his saddle horn and eats 
it as he rides. 

We have another oil much like olive oil which is 
made from cotton-seed. For a long time these seeds 
went to waste, but now they are ground up into oil, 
and the refuse therefrom is made into cattle feed and 



OLIVES AND VEGETABLE OILS 



279 



fertilizer. The products from our cotton-seed now yield 
annually a vast sum. In the year 1900 the seeds used 
weighed several million tons, and they produced oil, meal, 
and other things valued at thirty-three million dollars. 

In making this oil the lint is first taken off and sold 
as raw cotton, and the seeds are then sifted and cleaned. 
The hulls are cracked 
by machinery and 
separated from the 
kernels. The meats 
are then run through 
heavy rolls to squeeze 
out the oil, which is 
drawn off into settling 
tanks. It is after- 
ward refined, when it 
looks and tastes much 
like olive oil. In 
some cases the meats 
are cooked before 
they are crushed, but 
the best oil is made 
when they are pressed 
cold. Cotton-seed oil is used largely for cooking, and 
many prefer it as a substitute for lard or butter. It is 
sometimes employed to adulterate olive oil, lard, and other 
things, and it is also used for making soap, paint, drugs, 
and for oiling machinery, and for lighting. 

The Russians raise sunflowers for their seeds. These 
contain a rich oil that is used largely in salads and in 
cooking, and also for lighting and for making candles 




Sunflowers in Russia. 



280 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

and soaps. The people eat the seeds as we do peanuts, 
keeping a handful or so in their pockets and nibbling 
away at them from time to time. Each sunflower has 
from eight hundred to one thousand seeds, and these 
seeds are in such demand for various purposes that about 
forty million pounds of them are raised every year. The 
Russians sow the seeds in the fall or in the early spring, 
drilling them in, in rows about eighteen inches apart, and 
thinning out the plants, so as to leave a space of a foot or 
so between them. An acre of sunflowers should yield 
about fifty bushels of seeds ; and these, when pressed, 
will give about one gallon of oil per bushel. 

The Chinese make oil from certain kinds of beans, using 
the refuse, or bean cake, as food for both man and animal 
and also as fertilizer. They have, moreover, an oil which 
is extensively grown in their own and in other countries 
and which is largely imported by us. This oil could hardly 
be used for cooking, although it is of great value when one 
has eaten too much. It is castor oil, made of the seed of 
the castor oil plant. This plant is a native of India but 
is now cultivated in most warm countries. It varies in 
size from a shrub to a tree fifteen or twenty feet in 
height. In extracting the oil the seeds are first crushed 
between heavy rollers and then pressed in bags under a 
screw press. 

There are a few other vegetable oils which are used for 
cooking and eating in different parts of the world, but none 
of them is so important as those we have considered. Val- 
uable oils are also made from several species of nuts, such 
as peanuts, palm nuts, and cocoanuts, as we shall learn 
farther on in our travels. 



DATES AND FIGS 28 1 



38. DATES AND FIGS 

IS it not strange that one of the sweetest of fruits should 
come from the desert ? The palm that bears the date 
thrives in the midst of burning sands, if its roots can have 
plenty of moisture. It is grown by irrigation in the oases 
of the Sahara Desert, almost everywhere in the valley of 
the Nile, in the fertile spots upon the Desert of Arabia, 
and especially along the Shat-el-Arab River, at the head 
of the Persian Gulf. 

The Shat-el-Arab is formed by the union of the Tigris and 
the Euphrates at Kurna; and it flows from there for a dis- 
tance of seventy miles down to the Gulf of Persia, 
through some of the richest soil and one of the hottest 
climates of the world. Here, in midsummer, the thermom- 
eter rises to one hundred and twenty degrees in the shade, 
and the few European inhabitants sleep in bedrooms 
cooled by fanning mills which force the air through wet 
screens. Even the natives spend the hot nights on the 
roofs of their houses; and in the warmer parts of the day 
most people stay within doors. In winter the climate is 
as delightful as that of southern California. It seldom 
rains, and the air is dry and clear almost all the year 
round. 

This region is said to be the birthplace of the date palm. 
According to the Arabs, it was here that the Garden of 
Eden was situated. It is only a few hundred miles above 
here, on the banks of the Euphrates, that Babylon was situ- 
ated, and a like distance away, upon the Tigris, that Bag- 
dad now stands. The climate here is exactly suited to the 



282 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



date palm, and the Shat-el-Arab Valley is believed to con- 
tain the largest continuous orchard of the world. It ranges 
from less than a mile to more than three miles in width, 
and has more than five million date trees running up and 
down both sides of the river. 

The slope of the valley is such that it can be easily irri- 
gated. The wide muddy Shat-el-Arab carries the vast 

volume of the Euphrates 
and the Tigris Rivers ; 
and it is so backed up at 
every high tide that it 
fills the irrigating canals, 
inclosing the date trees 
in a network of waters. 
At such times the larger 
canals look like rivers 
running through a forest 
of palms; and the smaller 
ones form silver ropes, 
winding their way in and 
out about the date trees. 
The water is full of silt, 
and its droppings ferti- 
lize the trees. 

There are date orchards 
along the Tigris and the 
Euphrates Rivers, and also near the Gulf of Oman, farther 
south ; so that all together the Persian Gulf regions have 
more date palms than any other part of the earth. They 
have fifteen or twenty million trees, annually yielding more 
than one hundred thousand pounds of fruit. They furnish 





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In a Persian date orchard. 



DATES AND FIGS 



283 



most of the dates sold in our American markets ; although 
we get some from the Sahara and from Egypt, and are 
now growing a few ourselves in the hot dry irrigated 
lands of Arizona and southern California. 

The date palm may be raised from the seed, but it is usu- 
ally grown from suckers which sprout out about the trunks 
of the older trees. These are set out at about one hundred 
to the acre, and, if well watered, they strike root at once 
and, within four or five years, begin to 
bear fruit. They come into full bearing at 
eleven or more years of age, and after 
that they may yield for a hundred years. 
When mature, a tree should produce 
eight or ten bunches, each containing 
from twelve to twenty pounds of dates. 

In the Sahara the date blossoms in 
April. The flowers are perfectly white, 
and this is the color of the dates when 
they are first formed. A little later 
they turn green, and toward the end 
of the summer they take on a reddish or 
a yellowish tinge, a sign that they are ripening. They 
grow redder or yellower as they become riper ; and, when 
dead ripe, the yellow dates are the color of amber, and the 
red dates have turned to a reddish brown or black. Green 
dates are not fit to eat, and they pucker one's mouth like 
a green persimmon. As they ripen, this taste passes 
away, they gradually sweeten, and, when dead ripe, they 
are almost as sweet as sugar itself. They now begin to 
dry on the trees and are ready to be gathered and shipped 
to the market. 




Date flower. 



284 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Dates are of as many different varieties as apples. More 
than one hundred kinds of dates are grown in the Sahara 
and a great number in the Persian Gulf region. Different 
markets demand different dates. Europe and America 
have their favorites, while India and the Orient prefer 
other kinds. Some dates will stand shipment better than 
others, and some are especially delicious when fresh from 
the trees. 

The dates shipped to America are sweet dates. They 
are allowed to dry on the trees for a week or so after they 
ripen. This shrinks them, and they can then be shipped 
to better advantage. They are of a soft variety, and are 
full of juice, which must be drained off before being packed. 
They are brought here in bags of matting or in long 
wooden boxes, the choicest dates often being repacked at 
the ports before they are shipped to New York. 

The favorite date of the natives of the Sahara contains 
much less sugar than that sent to the United States. It is 
a dry date which is almost unknown to us, but which largely 
takes the place of bread in that wild desert region. These 
dates are not soft or sticky when ripe, and if stored in dry 
places, they can be kept a longtime. They form a health- 
ful food and are eaten by man and beast, being often fed 
to camels and even to dogs. 

The date palm is the most important of all desert palms. 
In the Sahara Desert its fruit often takes the place of 
both bread and meat. There are parts of Arabia where 
the people live almost entirely upon dates and bread, with 
an occasional feast of a sheep, goat, or chicken. The 
sweet dates furnish a sirup or date honey and the juice of 
the green dates can be turned into vinegar. The Bedouins 



DATES AND FIGS 



285 



make the ripe fruit into a paste which hardens so that it 
can be kept for a long time ; and dry dates are sometimes 
pulverized and cooked as meal. The seeds or stones are 
crushed and fed to camels, goats, sheep, and horses, and 
there is an edible bud at the crown of the tree which is 
known as palm cabbage and which, when the tree falls, is 
eaten as a vegetable. 

The wood of this palm is very valuable in the desert lands 
where it grows. It is used for fencing and for house build- 
ing. The fibers of the leaves and trunk furnish the tow 
with which the Arabs stuff their saddles, and they are also 
used for rope making. 
A fine thread is made 
from the stem of the 
fruit, and mats and 
baskets are woven 
from the split leaves. 

There is another 
fruit which can be 
grown in much the 
same surroundings as 
the date, but which 
also thrives in subtropical regions and even in the warmer 
parts of our country. This is the fig, which is supposed 
to have originated in Asia, and which is now grown 
commercially in many of the countries about the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

Fig trees are found in most of our Southern States ; and 
large orchards of Smyrna trees have been planted in Cali- 
fornia and are yielding several million pounds of figs every 
year. In some oases of the Sahara Desert fig trees are 




Green figs. 



286 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



raised under the date palms; they are common in Algeria 
and Morocco ; and they thrive better, perhaps, in Syria 
than anywhere else. The chief port from which they are 
sent to the United States is Smyrna, about which are 
large orchards producing a delicious variety of this fruit. 

Fig trees are grown from seeds or from cuttings and also 
by budding. They are set out sixteen, or more feet apart 




Packing figs in California. 

in the orchard, and when full-grown are tall, with wide 
branches and large beautiful leaves. They begin to yield 
fruit at three years of age, and after that they will bear 
two or three crops every year for a century or longer. 
Figs on the trees look plump, and in shape they resemble 
a small tomato. They are of different colors, according 
to the variety, some being white, some black, some purple, 
and others yellow or green. The purple figs are the best, 
although the yellow ones are the most beautiful. 

Figs are gathered when they are dead ripe and laid 



SOME OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS 287 

upon boards in the sun to dry. After this they are pressed 
into shape, one by one, and packed up in boxes to be sent 
to the markets. 

39. SOME OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS 

IN addition to the fruits we have already examined, there 
are many others which are eaten here and there over 
the world, but have no important part in commerce. The 
mango, for instance, might be called the apple of the 
tropics. It is a luscious juicy fruit of about the size of a 
goose egg, or larger, and of much the same shape. It grows 
well in the East Indies, in most parts of the Philippine 
Islands, and in Central and South America, the West In- 
dies, and elsewhere. 

Theguava, from which the famed guava jelly is made, is 
a yellow-skinned fruit about as big around as a silver dol- 
lar. It is rather sweet and of a light red color. The 
guava tree looks somewhat like a plum tree. It is grown 
in the West Indies, as well as in Brazil, Paraguay, and other 
tropical parts of the world. 

Many of the fruits of the warm zones are of enormous 
size. The breadfruit, for instance, grows almost as large 
as a football ; it is round or oval in shape and contains 
a fibrous pulp which is white and mealy, looking some- 
what like new bread. It is eaten before it is ripe, and it 
forms a staple article of food among the natives of the 
South Sea and the East Indian Islands. The South Sea 
Islanders cook breadfruit in ovens made in the earth. 
They place it between layers of heated stones and green 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



leaves ; first a layer of hot stones, then leaves, and then 
breadfruit ; then more stones, more leaves, and more fruit, 
until the oven is full. They then spread earth over all. 
The hot stones soon create a steam from the moisture in 

the leaves and the 
fruit, and within 
a short time the 
breadfruit is 
ready to eat. 

The jackfruit 
is of the same 
nature as the 
breadfruit, but 
coarser, and two 
or three times as 
large. Another 
fruit of these 
same regions is 
the durian, which 
has so disgusting 
a smell that many 
people will not 
taste it. Never- 
theless, it is de- 
licious, having a pulp of fine flavor that is not unlike 
that of cream. The durian is about as large as a good- 
sized cocoanut ; it has a rind covered with prickly spines 
and looks like a little hedgehog rolled up. 

How would you like to pick melons from trees ? You 
may do that in Cuba, Porto Rico, and other countries of 
about the same latitude. The papaya tree has a fruit 




Breadfruit tree. 



SOME OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS 



289 



which tastes and looks like a muskmelon. It has soft 
sweet yellow flesh, with many small black seeds, and is so 
easily digested that people can eat it when they can eat 
nothing else. Indeed, the papaya aids the stomach in 
digesting other foods ; and it is said that tough meat, if 
dipped in water containing 
a little papaya juice, will 
become tender. The papaya 
tree is seldom more than 
twenty-five feet high, and 
the melonlike fruit grows 
on stems attached to the 
trunk near the top. 

We have many wild per- 
simmons in the United 
States. They are found in 
great quantities in Virginia ; 
and some of us have eaten 
them when dead ripe in the 
fall, after the first hard frost. 
They are no larger than 
plums, and they are by no 
means bad, I assure you. 
Nevertheless, they do not 




Papaya tree. 



compare with the persimmons of Japan, China, Korea, and 
the East Indies. These are as big as good-sized tomatoes 
and are of about the same color ; they have a soft sweet 
pulp and can be eaten with a spoon. 

The mangosteen is a famous delicacy in some of the 
warmest parts of the world. It is a native of the Molucca 
Islands, but is also grown in Java, Ceylon, and other tropical 

FOODS — 19 



29O FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

countries. This fruit is shaped like a small orange ; it is 
of a dark reddish brown color, and the pulp within is 
white, with a tinge of rose pink. It has a fine flavor and 
is one of the choicest fruits of the tropics. 

The pomegranate is a native of southwestern Asia, and 
it grows also in other parts of the world where the climate 
is warm. It is of about the size of a lemon and is full of 
seeds, each inclosed in a pulp. The pulp is eaten and 
is used also for making a drink. 



40. NUTS 

WE shall go nutting to-day, and our trip will take us 
over the greater part of the globe. Nuts have al- 
ways had an important place as a food for man. They 
are eaten almost everywhere. They are gathered by the 
natives of the forest wilds for the traders, and in civilized 
countries they are raised in orchards and exported all 
over the world. 

Our principal commercial food nuts are almonds, Eng- 
lish walnuts, cocoanuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, 
chestnuts, and hickory nuts. We spend several million 
dollars every year importing them, and more for almonds 
and English walnuts than for any of the others. 

We raise some almonds in California ; but, nevertheless, 
we buy annually almost a million dollars' worth from 
Spain and from other countries about the Mediterranean 
Sea. Almonds are of two kinds, sweet and bitter. The 
bitter ones are used to make flavoring extracts and prussic 
acid and are not good to eat. Sweet almonds are used for 



NUTS 



291 



food and are sold everywhere in our grocery stores. We 
eat them raw and cooked and also in cakes, candies, and 
other confections. Sugared almonds are delicious, and so 
are burnt almonds and blanched almonds, when salted. 
Almond trees resemble peach trees, and the fruit is 
much like the peach, save that it has a thin flesh, the nut 




Almond trees resemble peach trees. 



forming the stone. When the almond ripens, the skin 
breaks open, and, as the flesh shrivels and dries, the nut 
falls to the ground. In gathering the crop, men and boys 
go through the orchards and pick up the nuts ; and they 
sometimes shake them off upon sheets spread under the 
trees. The almonds are packed in sacks or bales to be 
shipped to the markets. 

If we lived in certain parts of California, we might have 



292 FOODS: OR HOW HIE WORLD IS FED 

a two weeks' vacation every October, in order to help 
gather English walnuts. These nuts are now grown there 
in large quantities ; and, although we also import many 
from France, Spain, and Italy, we raise some of the best 
of the world. Walnut trees are set out in rows just as 
apple trees are, and they are carefully cultivated until 
they are six or seven years old, when they begin to bear. 
They keep on bearing more and more nuts every year for 
about twenty years, and, if well cared for, they may bear 
longer than the lifetime of a man. 

The nuts begin to ripen about the middle of September, 
and fall from that time on until the last of November.- In 
the height of the season all the boys and the girls of the 
neighborhood, as well as such men and women as can be 
had, go over the great orchards again and again, gathering 
the nuts into pails, cans, or sacks. The children are paid 
so much a pound for all they pick up, and a boy or a girl 
can make very good wages. 

After the walnuts are gathered, they are taken to the 
drying grounds and raked over in order that the hulls 
may be cleaned off. The shells are now brown, and they 
must be whitened before the nuts are ready for sale. 
This is done by washing them in water mixed with cer- 
tain chemicals, which turns them to the color of the nuts 
sold in our stores. Sometimes bamboo poles are used to 
knock the nuts from the trees and machines to take off 
the hulls. 

In addition to the English walnut, we have the black 
walnut, which grows wild in many parts of the United 
States, and also the white walnut, or butternut, which is 
noted for its delicious sweet kernel. These nuts, how- 



NUTS 293 

ever, are used chiefly in the localities where they are 
grown and are seldom exported. The same is true of our 
hickory nuts, which we gather and lay away to crack on 
winter nights ; and also of acorns, pignuts, and beechnuts, 
which are eaten by the hogs, as they roam through the 
woods. 

It is different with the pecan, which belongs to the 
family of hickories. It grows in large quantities through- 
out our Southern States and is cultivated in Texas and in 
many parts of the Mississippi Valley. The trees are set 
out about forty feet apart. They begin to bear in five or 
six years and produce until they are twenty years old, when 
some trees will yield as much as twenty bushels of nuts in 
one year. There are different varieties of pecans ; some 
large and some small, and some with shells so thin that 
they can be crushed with the fingers. 

Most of our chestnuts are small, and we use them chiefly 
as a luxury, eating them raw or roasted. They are fre- 
quently sold hot from the ovens, by peddlers, on the street 
corners of our cities ; and are sometimes cooked by boys, 
in corn poppers, over the coals. In southern Europe and 
in Japan, China, and Korea, there are chestnuts as big as 
buckeyes, and they are grown extensively for food. In 
southern France the peasants eat these nuts twice a day 
during the fall and winter ; and in the towns there are 
regular chestnut peddlers who carry the steamed meats 
through the streets and sell them to the working people 
for breakfast. In some parts of the Alps the peasants 
grind up dried chestnuts and make flour of them ; and in 
Sicily and Italy they are stewed, roasted, and served in 
other ways. 



294 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

We import many of these large chestnuts to use for 
making candy and for stuffing roast turkey ; and in recent 
years we have been growing them ourselves, either by 
planting the nuts or by grafting cuttings of the foreign 
trees upon our native chestnut sprouts. Such trees thrive, 
and the sprouts, fed by the native roots, grow rapidly and 
are soon bearing fruit. 

The pistachio nut comes from Syria, and the pine nut, 
which is of about the same size, is found in many parts of 
southern Europe, as well as in Korea and other lands of 
similar climates. Both of these nuts are eaten raw and 
roasted, and they are often ground up or coated with sugar 
and sold as a candy. We have also hazelnuts and filberts, 
which are used in confections or are eaten raw. 

There are two nuts grown in tropical lands which are 
now exported to all parts of the globe. These are the 
cocoanut and the Brazil nut. The Brazil nut grows chiefly 
in northern South America, along the banks of the Amazon 
and the Orinoco Rivers ; and the cocoanut is found al- 
most everywhere near the seacoast in the hot parts of 
the world. 

The Brazil nut is remarkable in that it is a nut within a 
nut. It grows inside a shell bigger than that of the 
largest cocoanut, from eighteen to twenty-four nuts being 
found in each shell. The tree which produces it rises to a 
height of more than one hundred feet ; and if one of these 
great nuts should be brushed off by the wind or thrown 
down by a monkey so that it should strike a traveler 
beneath, it would probably kill him. Brazil nuts are 
sometimes called cream nuts. They are about as long as 
a boy's little finger ; they have hard black or brown shells 



NUTS 295 

and white kernels full of oil. They may be found in 
almost any of our grocery stores. 

Far more important is the cocoanut. It is grown by the 
millions on the tropical islands of the Pacific, and we find 
it in vast groves in Samoa and in the Philippines. It 
sprouts up quickly on the coral atolls in mid-ocean and 




A cocoanut tree. 

along the seashore in Africa, South America, Asia, and 
in the West Indies. 

This tree is a palm which begins to bear at seven or 
eight years of age and produces fruit for many years. 
The cocoanuts grow in great bunches where the leaves 
sprout out at the top of the trunk ; and a good tree will 
produce a hundred nuts a year. The nuts fall when they 



296 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



are ripe, and the rough outside husks are taken off before 
they are shipped to our markets. 

The meat of the cocoanut is sometimes eaten raw, but 
it is chiefly valuable when dried, in which shape it is known 
as copra and is exported to Europe and the United States 
to be ground up and pressed into oil for making soap and 




Making copra in Samoa. 



for use in certain manufactures. Seven or eight cocoanuts 
will produce about one quart of oil, and the refuse from 
the pressing forms a good food for stock. Dried cocoa- 
nut, or copra, is one of the principal articles of commerce 
in the South Sea Islands; and many of our Samoan and 
Filipino cousins get a large part of their money from 
their cocoanut groves. In making copra the rough husks 



COFFEE 297 

of the nuts must be first taken off. The inside shells are 
then broken, and the kernels, cut in pieces, are dried in the 
sun and packed for export. 

We use considerable ripe cocoanut meat in making candy 
and cake. Some of us, no doubt, have tasted cocoanut 
milk, the juice of the ripe cocoanut. The best milk is from 
the green nut, and this can be had only in the lands of the 
cocoanut. It is as clear as water and is most delicious 
when drunken direct from the shell. 

Another tree of this family which yields nuts in commer- 
cial quantities is the African oil palm, whose fruit compares 
to the cocoanut much as a glass marble does to a football. 
These nuts grow in clusters of a thousand or more. Their 
kernels range in size from sparrow eggs to pigeon eggs. 
They contain an oil which is used by the natives for cook- 
ing and lighting and which is exported by the ship load to 
Europe for soap making and for other manufactures. 



41. COFFEE 

COFFEE, tea, and cacao are so largely consumed by 
mankind that they form important articles of com- 
merce and industry. So much coffee is produced every 
year that if it were evenly divided there would be more 
than a pound and a half for every man, woman, and child ; 
and so many coffee trees are now growing that every in- 
habitant of the world might have a tree of his own, and 
leave many millions to spare. 

We have no coffee trees in the United States proper, on 



298 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



account of our cold climate ; nevertheless, we buy more 
coffee than any other country. We use twice as much 
per capita as the Germans and many times as much as 
the Belgians, Austro-Hungarians, Dutch, British, or Cana- 
dians, who rank next to us among the coffee drinkers of 
the world. We buy enough in a year to equal twelve 
pounds for every person in our country, and our coffee bill 
often amounts to ninety million dollars. Of this great sum, 
every American family which drinks coffee pays a part; 
and, therefore, we are personally interested in learning 
about it and how it is grown. 

Coffee comes from the seeds of a tree which is found 
in many parts of the tropics. It is an evergreen from ten 

to twenty feet high, 
with shiny leaves. 
It bears small white 
blossoms and berries 
of about the size of a 
cranberry and of the 
same color and shape. 
Inside each berry are 
one or two seeds or 
beans which form the 
coffee of commerce. 
The seeds are usually 
half globes, fitted together with the flat sides facing each 
other and surrounded by a sweet fleshy pulp. The berries 
grow close to the stalk all over the tree. They are picked 
off when ripe, and the seeds, properly dried and cleaned, 
are shipped all over the world, to make this drink which 
is so much relished by man. 




Coffee blossoms and berries. 



COFFEE 299 

The coffee tree is supposed to have originated in Abys- 
sinia and to have received its name from the province of 
Kaffa, where it still grows wild. It was first carried over to 
Arabia and planted there in the districts from where the 
purest of the famed Mocha coffee comes. Toward the end 
of the seventeenth century it was taken to Java and then 
to other tropical countries all over the world. 

It thrives best in latitudes between fifteen degrees north 
and south of the Equator, although it is cultivated with 
success in places thirty degrees south or north, where the 
temperature does not fall below fifty-five above zero. Jack 
Frost is a deadly enemy to this tree, and excessive heat 
hinders its growth. It is usually found some distance back 
from the sea and especially upon well-watered mountain 
slopes, from one to four thousand feet above sea level. 

The chief coffee regions are upon our own hemisphere ; 
and nearly all the world's crop comes from South America, 
and especially from Brazil. Central America and the 
West Indies also produce coffee abundantly. 

The total crop of the world amounts in some years to as 
much as twenty-three hundred million pounds, of which 
twenty-one hundred million and more come from this hemi- 
sphere ; most of the remainder being from Java and Sumatra 
in the Dutch East Indies, and from Ceylon and some 
other islands belonging to the British, in the Indian Ocean. 
Coffee is also raised in Australia, in Madagascar, and in 
parts of eastern and western Africa ; while Hawaii and 
the Philippine Islands produce some for export. A few 
million pounds of excellent coffee are grown in the moun- 
tainous regions of Cuba and Porto Rico, and about two 
hundred million pounds are annually grown in Mexico and 



300 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

Central America. Haiti and San Domingo produce a con- 
siderable amount, and so do Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, 
Peru, and Chile. The chief of all coffee countries, however, 
is Brazil, which yields at least two thirds of the world's 
crop, furnishing more than enough each year to give one 
pound to every man, woman, and child upon earth. 

The greater part of the coffee used by the United States 
comes from Brazil, and we can learn all about it by mak- 
ing a tour through the highlands southwest of Rio de 
Janeiro, where more coffee is grown than anywhere else in 
the world. The land there is from one thousand to three 
thousand feet above the sea ; it is gently rolling, and the 
hillsides are covered with coffee plantations. 

We take passage on one of the coffee steamers at New 
York ; and after sailing southeastwardly many days, we 
reach the coast of Brazil at Bahia, where we turn to the 
southwest and finally land at Santos, the port for Sao Paulo. 
Here we climb the highlands by train, over a cog railroad; 
and after a journey on the cars of several hundred miles 
across country, we find ourselves on one of the largest of the 
coffee estates. We have been riding for hours through a 
region covered with coffee trees and have gone to and fro 
on the little railroad which carries the berrries from the 
trees to the factory and reaches every part of this mighty 
plantation. 

How interesting it is ! Standing upon the higher hills 
there are millions of coffee trees within sight ; we can see 
nothing else as far as our eyes can reach. The land is 
covered with a mantle of green, striped here and there 
with bands of brick red. The green mantle is the coffee 
trees, and the red marks out the roads. Look down at 



COFFEE 301 

the soil. It is the color of brick dust, and this color comes 
from the large amount of iron mixed with the other mate- 
rials which it contains. The redder the soil, the better it 
is thought to be for coffee, although in some other parts of 
the world coffee is raised upon soil which is not red at all. 

Now observe the trees. In the field where we are stand- 
ing they look more like bushes than anything else. They 
are ten or twelve feet in height, and the branches grow out 
on all sides, from the ground to the top. They are planted 
in rows, and the long rows of green extend on and on until 
they lose themselves in the sky at the tops of the hills in 
the distance. 

We take horses and ride through field after field. In 
some the trees are only as high as our knees, and in others 
they are three times as high as our heads. Here they are 
planting coffee. The forest has been cut down, and a 
gang of laborers is setting out the plants among the 
stumps. In the next field we find a score or more boys 
on their knees, pulling the weeds from about the young 
trees ; and farther on men are plowing with mules which 
they direct carefully through the rows, turning up the red 
soil. 

As we go, we observe that it takes a great deal of work 
to grow coffee trees. The beans are first sown in seed 
beds or nurseries. They soon sprout, and when they are a 
few inches high they are transplanted, each being set out 
in a little basin or hole, with sticks or leaves spread above 
it to protect it from the hot rays of the sun. The crop is 
frequently hoed and plowed to keep down the weeds ; and 
this must be continued until the trees are four years old, 
when they will begin to bear fruit. After this they will 



302 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



produce several pounds of beans every year ; and in this 
rich coffee zone of southern Brazil a tree may continue to 
bear for thirty or even more years. 

A great coffee plantation looks different from season to 
season. Down here south of the Equator spring comes 
while we in the temperate zone are having our autumn, 




Picking coffee berries in Brazii. 



and the coffee bushes begin to blossom in December. At 
this time the air is loaded with fragrance, and the hills 
are covered with white flowers, shining out through the 
green leaves. 

Along in April or May the berries turn red, and the pick- 
ing begins. The berries ripen at different times, and the 
harvesting- lasts for weeks. During the harvest hundreds 



COFFEE 303 

of men, women, and children may be seen moving about 
through the bushes. Some are sitting down and picking 
or stripping the berries from the low branches, while others 
pull down and strip off those higher up. Sometimes a 
sheet is placed around the bottom of a tree and the berries 
are allowed to fall upon it. 

After picking, the fruit is taken to the factory in differ- 
ent ways. On this plantation the most of it goes upon the 
railroad ; but on others it is carried on mule back or in 
wagons, and sometimes it is floated down in long chutes, 
through which mountain streams have been conducted. 

We follow one of the train loads to the factory and 
watch the coffee seeds taken out and prepared for the 
markets. The factory is a large building filled with ma- 
chinery of different kinds for extracting the seeds ; and 
near it are great fields paved with cement, on which the 
coffee beans are dried in the sun. 

Let us look at some of the berries which have just come 
in from the fields. They look like red cherries and are 
almost as soft. We take up one and bite into it. The 
taste is not bad ; and we chew away at it until the skin 
and pulp have separated from the two hard beans which 
lie within, their flat sides touching each other. We take 
the beans out of our mouths and look at them. They are 
white, and it is only when we cut off the outer envelopes 
or skins, in which each seed lies, that we find the hard 
green coffee beans of our grocery stores. Every bean has 
two skins ; an outer one somewhat like parchment, and 
another within as thin as fine tissue paper. These skins 
must both be taken off before the beans can be sent to our 
markets. 



304 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



The first process is getting rid of the pulp. The berries 
are run through machines which squash them without 
injuring the seeds, making a mush of the pulp and seeds. 
This mush is now carried over a long copper cylinder, 
in which are hundreds of holes, each just big enough for a 
coffee bean to pass through. As the mush passes over the 




Cofiee drying outside a Brazilian factory. 



cylinder, the beans drop through the holes and are carried 
away by a little canal, into large vats. Here they are 
scoured clean by machinery, a great screw moving around 
among them and leaving them as white as snow. 

The next process is drying, in order that the skins may 
be crushed and taken off. The white beans are spread 
upon the cement floors outside the factory and are left in 



COFFEE 305 

the sun for several weeks, until each is as dry as a bone. 
During this time they are stirred about with rakes, in order 
that they may dry evenly, and are covered up at night, so 
that they may not get wet. 

The third process is the skinning. Every little bean has 
to have its clothes taken off. Its thick overcoat of parch- 
ment must be removed and the tissue-paper-like under- 
clothes, sometimes called the silver skin, must be torn 
away, so that it may go in its olive-green nakedness to our 
markets. This undressing is done by machinery which 
breaks the skins, and by fanning mills which free the 
chaff from the beans, blowing it away while the beans 
flow off by themselves. 

The cleaned coffee beans are of different sizes. Some 
are large and some small, some round and some almost flat. 
They must now be separated and graded before they are 
ready for shipment. This is done by passing them over 
sieves, so arranged that the grains are graded and run out 
through different pipes into bags ready to be shipped to 
the markets. 

Coffee is usually sorted into varieties, as to char- 
acter, size, and quality. These vary according to the 
soil in which the plants grow and also according to the 
parts of the plant from which the berries come. There 
are also different varieties of the coffee tree, such as 
the Arabian, the Liberian, and others, each of which has 
its own kind of fruit. There are certain grades known to 
the market ; and some of the beans are shipped abroad as 
Mocha, some as Java, and some as Peaberry Rio, and 
others. The fact that a coffee bears the name of Mocha 

is no sign that it came from Arabia; and very little of the 

i'i ions — 20 



306 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



coffee sold in our groceries as Java ever saw the island 

of Java in the Dutch East Indies. 

Coffee is shipped in sacks, each of which holds one 

hundred and thirty-two pounds ; and in this shape it is 

taken on the cars to Santos or to Rio de Janeiro, and there 

loaded upon steamers 
which carry it to the 
United States or to 
Europe. 

Leaving Brazil, let 
us now take a look 
at some of the coffee 
regions of Java. The 
mountain slopes in 
many parts of that 
island are covered 
with coffee trees. 
Java lies near the 
Equator, and its cli- 
mate is so hot that 
the trees need to be 
shaded. When the 

coffee is young, ba- 
in Java coffee trees are shaded. nana pknts are uged 

for this purpose, and, later on, larger trees, the leaves of 
which meet together overhead and shut out the hot sun. 
In some parts of the island there are estates where the 
best of machinery is used, much like the plantation we 
have visited in Brazil. In others the trees are in small 
orchards, each owned or rented by a family, who take 
care of them and gather the crop. The children aid 




COFFEE 307 

in the picking, the little brown boys and girls moving m 
and out of the green bushes, stripping off the red berries 
and carrying them home to be dried in the sun. After 
this, all unite in pounding the hulls off in wooden mortars, 
and in winnowing the chaff of skins and hulls by throw- 
ing it into the air. They carry the beans to the ware- 
houses belonging to the government or to private parties 
and sell them for so much a pound. 

The coffee soil of Java is usually of a chocolate-brown 
color, and some of it has a reddish tinge, like that of Brazil. 
Java is a land of volcanoes, and many of its volcanoes 
spout forth mud instead of stones. The mud contains rich 
fertilizing matter which, when dry, turns to a fine dust 
and enriches the soil. This dust is known as volcanic 
ash and is excellent for coffee. A somewhat similar soil 
is found on our coffee estates in Hawaii. 

I have seen coffee trees growing luxuriantly in the 
southern part of our Philippine Islands. Here I also 
observed a process of coffee manufacture of an almost 
savage nature. It was on a little plantation on the island 
of Sulu, where the Moros were employed in harvesting the 
crop. The ripe berries had been brought in from the trees 
and handed to a score of Moro women and girls, each of 
whom had a large tin pan by her side. The berries were 
hulled by putting them in the mouth and chewing them 
until the pulp was free from the seeds. After this both 
pulp and seeds were dropped out into the pan, and later 
on the pulp was washed away from the seeds in a creek 
near by. The beans were dried in the sun, and the two 
skins taken off by pounding the beans with a wooden 
pestle, in a mortar dug out of the upright end of the log. 



308 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

We raise excellent coffee in Porto Rico. Many of the 
mountainous parts of this island are covered with coffee 
trees ; and every October there is a wealth of rich red 
coffee berries shining out of the green leaves. The pick- 
ing season lasts several months ; and our little Porto Rican 
cousins aid their parents in gathering the berries into bas- 
kets and in carrying them to the factory on their heads. 
Much of the coffee is harvested in the interior and taken 
to the ports on the backs of ponies, and not a little 
goes in great carts, hauled by oxen yoked up by their 
horns. Porto Rican coffee is carefully sorted after it 
reaches the ports. It is especially prized by the coffee 
drinkers of Europe and is yearly growing in favor in 
the United States. 

The coffee, as it comes to us from the countries where 
it is raised, is in the raw olive-green beans which make 
the coffee of commerce. In this shape it is sold in all 
our grocery stores. Before it is used for drinking, the 
coffee must be roasted and ground. Many people do 
this at home, but there are also large establishments 
which make a business of roasting and grinding coffee, 
and the beans so roasted and ground are to be found 
almost everywhere. 

42. TEA 

LET us take a cup of tea with some of our friends 
in Japan, while we learn about a wonderful plant 
which furnishes a drink used by millions of people in 
many parts of the world. We are sitting in a tea house 
near Uji, on the edge of one of the best tea gardens of 



TEA 309 

the Japanese Empire. We took off our shoes upon enter- 
ing, in order not to soil the soft white mats, and are 
now sitting with our hosts upon little cushions, flat on 
the floor. How delightful it is ! The walls have been 
shoved back, and the air, fragrant with the odor of 
green tea leaves, blows through. We can almost pick the 
flowers which are blossoming outside the house; and that 
mountain stream flowing by seems to gurgle a welcome 
to us straight-eyed boys and girls from a far-away land. 

Now a little Japanese waitress in a dark blue kimona 
and white foot mittens trots in with some tiny blue 
cups on a tray. She first salutes us by getting down 
on her knees and sucking in her breath, as she bows her 
head to the floor. She then hands each of us a cup of 
steaming straw-colored liquor which has a delicious aroma. 
It is the best of Japanese tea. We drink it slowly, 
native fashion, taking three long sips and a short one, 
sucking in our breath loudly as we do so. The more 
noise we make in drinking, the better our host will be 
pleased ; for this shows that we appreciate the quality 
of the tea and like it. 

Tea has been used in Japan and China for ages; and 
the people of these countries drink more tea to-day than 
all the rest of the world put together. The amount con- 
sumed by them in one year has been estimated at more 
than two thousand million pounds, which is about three 
times as much as is used by the people of Europe, North 
America, and other tea-drinking countries. The British, 
whether at home in England, Ireland, or Scotland, or 
abroad in Australia, South Africa, or Canada, are the 
chief tea drinkers of the white race. They consume from 



3IO FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

four to eight pounds a year for each person, while the peo- 
ple of the United States and of the other countries of 
Europe each drink on the average only one pound or less. 
The Russians are especially fond of tea ; every well-to-do 
family keeps boiling water ready for making it by means 
of a samovar, which is a brass urn heated by a pipe inside 
filled with charcoal. They usually serve tea in tumblers, 
without milk, flavoring it with a slice of lemon ; and many 
of them, in drinking it, put a lump of loaf sugar between the 
teeth and suck the tea through it. In many English homes 
tea is served every afternoon and often instead of coffee 
for breakfast. Here in Japan it is offered us the moment 
we enter a house ; and the natives seem to be drinking 
it from morning until night. 

Where does tea come from ? It is from the evergreen 
leaves of bushes, such as we see on all sides in the 
gardens about us. The bushes are from three to five 
feet in height, and the leaves resemble those of a rose 
bush or a willow tree. It is from the young tender 
light green leaves which those women and children are 
picking that the best tea is made. Notice how they 
move about among the bushes, plucking off leaf after leaf 
and putting the leaves in baskets. They are careful which 
leaves they pick and try to get all the young ones. 
There are some girls who have filled their baskets and 
are carrying them to the tea factory, where the leaves 
will be dried and will then become the little twisted-up 
tea of our grocery stores. 

The tea plant belongs to the same family as the 
camellia. It is a native of subtropical Asia and grows 
wild on the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains. It has 



TEA 



311 



been cultivated for hundreds of years in Japan and 
China ; but only within the last century has it been 
grown commercially in India, Ceylon, and Java, from 
where more than half the tea exported now comes. The 
wild plants grow to a height of fifteen or more feet, but 
the cultivated ones are trimmed back and are usually kept 




Japanese women and children picking tea. 



only three, four, or five feet in height. Tea plants are 
quite hardy, and it is believed that they can be grown 
in parts of our Southern States. Indeed, a successful 
plantation has been established in South Carolina. 

In growing tea, the seeds are sown in nurseries or in 
the gardens themselves. The plants are set out so close 
together that fifteen hundred or more can be grown on an 



312 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

acre. They require a rich soil and must be cultivated and 
weeded until they are three years old, when the leaves are 
first plucked for tea. They produce more leaves as they 
grow older. After the first picking the tea is gathered 
several times every season, the limbs being trimmed off 
from time to time, so that the bush, although only a few 
feet in height, grows after a while quite a thick trunk. 
In some localities the bushes are cut down -to the ground 
every ten years and new ones are allowed to sprout from 
the stumps. 

The best tea comes from the young leaves and the buds 
just ready to open. In Japan there are three pickings 
every year, and in some parts of China, four. The first 
is in April, when the buds have just unfolded and are 
covered with fine silky hair. The second is in May or 
June, and the third and fourth later on. As the summer 
wanes, the leaves lose in quality, and, although only the 
tenderest are taken, those picked last make very poor tea. 

Tea varies also in flavor, according to the soil and 
locality in which it is grown. Some of the choicest 
tea is so valuable to the Chinese and the Japanese that 
it is seldom exported. I have tasted tea in Canton, in 
southern China, which the merchants there told me was 
worth twenty dollars a pound ; and teas are grown in 
Japan, the first pickings of which bring five times as much 
there as any tea sold in our markets. 

In Japan and China most of the tea is raised in small 
gardens, although there are parts of each country where 
the little tea farms all together cover many acres, the green 
bushes extending on and on for long distances in every 
direction. In the regions south of the Yangtse River 



TEA 313 

there are thousands of porters who carry the tea on their 
backs to the markets. In India, Ceylon, and Java the tea 
is raised on large estates, some of which employ hundreds 
of hands. The Sinagar tea plantation, which I visited in 
Java, was then producing more than a million pounds of 
the finest tea every year ; and it had, in some seasons, as 
many as three thousand women and girls picking tea. 
They were paid less than half a cent each for every 
pound of leaves, and the best pickers could make only 
a few cents a day. It takes several pounds of tea leaves 
to make a pound of tea, and a single bush seldom yields 
more than one pound of leaves each year. 

The Sinagar estate had great factories in which the tea 
was cured by machinery. The leaves were first spread out 
on the floor to wilt and were then put into rolling ma- 
chines, by which they were rubbed about over tables, so 
that they lost their flat shape and came out looking 
more like little green worms than anything else. They were 
next put through a process of fermentation and then dried 
by hot blasts and revolving fans, after which they were 
ready to be packed up into lead lined, damp proof boxes, 
for export to all parts of the world. 

Here in Japan and also in China most of the tea is 
cured by hand. There are two ways of doing this, ac- 
cording as green or black tea is desired. In making 
green tea, the fresh leaves are roasted in pans or steamed 
for a short time immediately after they are gathered. They 
are now rolled with the bare hand upon a table and are then 
taken back and again roasted in ovens for an hour or 
more. As the roasting goes on, they are stirred and 
rolled about; and, when they come out, they are of a dark 



314 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



green color, which grows lighter after a time. The roast- 
ing is done without fermentation. 

In curing black teas, the leaves are first exposed to the 
sun on circular trays. During this time they ferment, 
wilt, and become limp and spotted with red or brown, 
giving out a peculiar odor. The workmen watch the tea 
and, when the odor is - just right, gather it up in baskets 




Sorting tea. 



and spread it out on a long table, where men and women 
roll it over and over for about thirty minutes and then 
pack it tightly in large round baskets, where it again fer- 
ments. It is now poured out on the tables and again 
rolled, and then roasted on iron gauze sieves over charcoal 
fires. During the roasting the color turns black. 

After leaving the roasting or firing rooms the tea is 
sorted and all the seeds, stalks, and rubbish are picked out. 



TEA 



315 



The leaves are then ready to be shipped to the ports, 
whence they go to the markets. At the ports some teas 
are again roasted and sorted ; so that the tea for a single 
cup passes through many hands. 

The chief of the black teas known to commerce are 
the following, beginning with the finest : Flowery Pekoe, 
Orange Pekoe, Pekoe, Suchong, Oolong, Congou, and Bohio. 
The chief green teas are : Gunpowder, Imperial, Hyson, 
Young Hyson, and Hyson skin. Teas are also classed 
according to the provinces whence they come, and in other 
ways. The Formosa teas are especially fine, as are also 
some from Ceylon and from 
India. In curing tea, the 
leaves are often mixed with 
certain flowers for a time to 
give them a fragrant odor. 
In China and Japan green 
teas are sometimes colored 
with indigo, Prussian blue, 
and other materials. The 
Chinese call colored teas 
" lie teas." 

There is another form in 
which tea is largely exported 
to Russia. This is brick 
tea. In making it, the leaves are ground up and steamed 
until they are soft and mushy. They are then put into 
molds of about the size of a brick and pressed into shape. 
When they come out they are as hard as so much pressed 
clay, and the tea in them will keep fresh for a long time. 
The choice leaves are made into smaller bricks which look 




Brick tea. 



316 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

much like the little cakes of chocolate that are sold in our 
stores. Brick tea is packed up in boxes of the right size 
to be carried by camels, in caravans, across Asia to Russia. 
One of the chief places at which this tea is manufactured 
is Hankow ; and it can now be taken thence by rail to 
Pekin and over the Trans-Siberian Railroad through Russia 
to all parts of Europe. 

Brick tea is largely used in Tibet and Mongolia. The 
natives there make a soup of tea, butter, and salt mixed 
with water, to which a thick cream is added. The Mon- 
gols prize the bricks so much that they sometimes use 
them as money, each brick passing for the value of about 
fifteen cents. 

The tea importers of Europe and America have their 
buyers in the tea-growing countries. These men pick out 
the best teas. They must be able to tell good from bad 
tea before purchasing. They examine, smell, and taste 
the samples of tea, each made from a different kind of 
leaf, and can tell just how much each kind is worth. 

Most of the teas are packed for export in wooden 
chests which are lined with sheet lead to keep out the 
moisture. A great strife prevails among the tea steamers 
as to which shall get its cargo first to the markets. After 
loading, the ships start from China and Japan on their long 
race down to Singapore and across the Indian Ocean to 
the Suez Canal, and on through the Mediterranean to Eu- 
rope. Their arrival is eagerly awaited, and the tea that 
comes in first brings the highest price. A large part of 
our tea is brought by fast ships across the Pacific, being 
landed at either Seattle or Vancouver, whence it is sent by 
rail to all parts of our country. 



CACAO— CHOCOLATE AND COCOA 317 



43. CACAO — CHOCOLATE AND COCOA 

WHEN the Spaniards, commanded by Hernando Cor- 
tez, conquered Mexico, they found the natives using 
a drink made from the ground-up seeds of a fruit that 
grew on a tree. The Emperor Montezuma was so fond of 
it that he had some made for him daily, and about two 
thousand jars for his household. The drink was served to 
him smoking hot, in golden goblets ; and he sipped it 
from spoons of fine tortoise shell. The seeds of this tree 
were so valued by the Aztecs that they used them as 
money ; and a good double handful, in some localities, 
was the price of a slave. Pizarro found the Incas 
using the same drink in Peru ; and his soldiers, as those 
of Cortez, tried the beverage and liked it. They carried 
the seeds of the tree back to Spain ; and from there the 
knowledge of the new drink gradually spread, until it was 
known throughout Europe, and the seeds became an im- 
portant article of commerce. 

This drink was chocolate, and the tree from which the 
seeds came was the cacao tree, which is now commercially 
grown in many tropical parts of the world. It is a native 
of Central and South America, and it was cultivated by 
the Indians long before white men crossed the Atlantic. 
It is now raised largely, not only in Mexico, Central 
America, and the West Indies, but also in Ecuador, Colom- 
bia, Venezuela, and Brazil. It has been taken to the 
islands and countries along the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, to 
southeastern Asia, to the Philippines, Hawaii, Java, and 
even to Samoa and the other islands of the South Seas, 



3i8 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



The world's demand for cacao has become so great that 
several hundred million pounds of it are annually exported 
to the various markets, and every nation of Christendom 

delights in it as a 
drink and also in 
candies, cakes, and 
puddings. 

What is more de- 
licious than a cup of 
sweet chocolate for 
breakfast ? And how 
our mouths water 
when we think of 
chocolate caramels, 
creams, or the little 
cubes of sweet choco- 
late made in different 
ways. The use of 
chocolate is steadily 
increasing in our 

Javanese women sorting cacao. count ry and also in 

many other parts of the world. For a long time the Span- 
iards consumed more than any other nation. They were 
the first to know the secrets of chocolate manufacture, and 
they held, for a time, the monopoly of the trade. Now 
almost every one understands how to make chocolate, and 
we ourselves import more cacao seeds than any other 
nation. The drink is used throughout Europe ; and the 
Germans, French, British, and Dutch now each consume 
far more of it than the Spaniards. 

The cacao tree is an evergreen which seldom grows 







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CACAO — CHOCOLATE AND COCOA 



319 



more than fifteen or twenty feet high and which in culti- 
vation is often kept lower by trimming. The tree has 
large glossy leaves which grow chiefly on the ends of the 
branches, but sometimes on the trunk. It has small 
pinkish white blossoms on the trunk and the main 
branches. Its fruit when ripe is about the shape of a 
squash and is six or eight, or even more, inches long and 
sometimes six inches thick, 
and grows upon short stems 
on the trunk or the branches. 
The ripe fruit has a thick 
hard warty skin inclosing 
a sweet pulp, in which are 
many reddish brown seeds, 
— the cacao beans of com- 
merce. There are from 
twenty to thirty, and some- 
times even forty, of these 
seeds in one fruit ; and they 
lie in five cells, each cell 
filled with this soft pink or 
white pulp. The seeds are Cacao - 

about as big as sweet almonds, only a little thicker. Each 
seed consists of a shell containing a dark brown kernel, 
which is more than half oil. From this kernel our choco- 
late is made. 

In raising cacao trees, the seeds are first planted in 
nurseries or out in the fields. They sprout quickly and 
soon grow a foot or more high. They are now trans- 
planted, about two hundred and fifty to the acre, in fields 
shaded with bananas and are carefully weeded until they are 




320 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



four or five years old, when they begin to bear fruit. They 
are in full bearing at about the eighth year, when a good 
tree will yield about eight thousand seeds, and they con- 
tinue to bear for many years. 

In Venezuela, which is one of the most important of 
the cacao-growing countries, the fruit is harvested twice a 







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Cacao harvester at work. 

year. It is cut from the trees, the pods on the higher 
branches being chopped off with sharp knives fastened to 
long poles and the fruit caught as it falls. In some coun- 
tries the seeds are at once removed and washed, but in 
others they are covered up and allowed to ferment in ves- 
sels, in heaps on the ground or in holes under it, until the 
pulp decays. After this the beans, or seeds, are taken 



CACAO — CHOCOLATE AND COCOA 32 1 

out, dried in the sun, and shipped in bags to the markets. 
The ordinary yield of a tree is two or three pounds of 
seeds per year, although some trees produce much more, 
a good crop being five or six hundred pounds to the 
acre. 

After the cacao beans have reached the markets, they 
have yet a number of processes to go through before they 
become chocolate or cocoa. These are performed in great 
factories filled with modern machinery. Here the beans 
are first cleansed of dust and other stuff. They are then 
roasted in large revolving cylinders in which they are 
moved over hot pipes for several hours. They are next 
crushed to get out the kernels, the shells and dust being 
taken away by an air blast to be treated separately and 
sold under the name of cacao shells. 

It is from the crushed kernels, freed from the shells, 
that the real chocolate comes. These are put into mills, 
through hoppers above, and are ground into a fine smooth 
paste which flows out somewhat like thick molasses. It 
is run off into molds, in which it soon hardens, and it is then 
ready to be packed up for sale to our grocery stores. In 
making sweet chocolate, sugar is added before it is 
molded ; and, for vanilla chocolate, some vanilla extract, 
or finely ground vanilla beans. 

Cacao nibs, or the broken pieces of the beans after the 
shell is removed, are sometimes used to make chocolate or 
cocoa. An essence of cocoa is also made from them, which 
can be used by pouring boiling water upon it. In the manu- 
facture of chocolate and cocoa, a large part of the fat is 
removed and placed upon the market as cocoa butter, to 
be used for medicinal purposes. 

FOODS — 21 



322 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

In addition to tea, coffee, and cacao, there are other 
plants and trees which furnish stimulants or drinks in 
different parts of the world. The coca plant is chewed 
by the Indians of Bolivia and of Peru. It is a shrub which 
grows four or five feet high, with leaves that look like 
those of our wintergreen. The leaves are stimulating, 
and many of the Indians chew them all day long. It 
is from this shrub that cocaine is made. 

In southeastern Asia and the islands about the people 
chew the nuts of the betel palm, which they mix with lime 
and tobacco ; and in Africa the nuts of the kola tree are 
chewed for their invigorating properties. 

In Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil the people 
make a tea called yerba mate, from the leaves of a species, 
of wild holly, found in Paraguay and Brazil. The plant 
is also cultivated. The branches are cut off and' the 
leaves are woven in and over them, as a thatch over a 
framework. Beneath this a fire is built and is kept burn- 
ing until the leaves are perfectly dry. They are then taken 
down and pounded with flat wooden clubs to a coarse 
powder, which is packed up in rawhide bales for the mar- 
kets. More than a million dollars' worth of such bales 
are sold every year. 

In preparing mate for use, a spoonful of powder is put 
into a bowl, hot water is poured on, and after a short time 
a tea is formed, which is sucked up through a tube. This tea 
is very refreshing when one is tired. Many South Ameri- 
cans use it for their early breakfast, and it is said that the 
cowboys of Argentina will gallop all day on horseback 
without eating, if they have a good cup of mate before 
they start out. 



TOBACCO 323 



44- TOBACCO 

TOBACCO is not a food plant, but it is so largely used 
and so important to commerce and industry that we 
must learn something about it. It was not known until 
the discovery of America ; and one of the most wonderful 
stories which the Spaniards who went with Columbus told 
upon their return to Europe was how the Indians ate fire 
and breathed the smoke from their nostrils. Many of 
these Spaniards had learned to smoke tobacco, as the In- 
dians did, and after a while the custom was introduced 
into Europe and became fashionable among the ladies 
and gentlemen of the time. Tobacco leaves were first 
carried from Santo Domingo to Spain in 1559, and, a few 
years later, some were taken by Sir Francis Drake from 
Virginia to England. Sir Walter Raleigh then started the 
fashion of pipe smoking at the court of Queen Eliza- 
beth. Shortly after this tobacco began to spread over 
the world, and it is now used in some form or other in 
almost every part of it. 

As for ourselves, we think man is better off without 
tobacco ; and this was the opinion of many at the time it 
began to be used. It was then denounced as injurious; 
and James I of England described smoking as " loathsome 
to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dan- 
gerous to the lungs, and in its black fumes, nearest resem- 
bling the Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." 
Some of the popes of those days declared against smoking, 
and a Sultan of Turkey made tobacco using a crime. 

Notwithstanding all this, the evil custom steadily grew, 



324 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



and the demand for tobacco became great. Plantations: 
were set out in Virginia and Maryland, and, for a long time, 




Tobacco field in Virginia. 

most of the wealth of those colonies came from them. 
The crop was so valuable that taxes were paid in to- 
bacco, and it was used as money. Some young women 
were once sent across the Atlantic Ocean from England 
to the colonies, to be chosen by the settlers as wives ; and 
each groom paid for his bride's passage between one hun- 
dred and twenty and one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. 
For a long time Maryland and Virginia were our only 
tobacco producers. A little later tobacco was planted in 
Pennsylvania and in other parts of the north, and it is now 
grown in almost every one of the United States, although, 



t< )B.\( :c< ) 



325 



on a large scale, in comparatively few. Our chief tobacco 
States are Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, and 
Tennessee ; and our crop all together is so large that it could 
furnish more than ten pounds to every man, woman, and 
child of us. 

The cultivation of the tobacco plant has long been ex- 
tended to other countries ; and it is now grown on all the 
continents and on many islands of the seas. It is one of 
the chief products of the West Indies, some of the finest 
tobacco of the world being grown in Cuba and Porto Rico. 
Excellent varieties are also produced in Sumatra, Java, 




Making cigars in a Manila factory. 

and the Philippine Islands. The United States, however, 
grows more tobacco than any other country ; and we 
export vast quantities of it, sending some to almost every 
part of the world. Our chief exports go to Germany, Eng- 
land, France, Austria, and Holland. 

We use a large amount of it at home ; and, as this lux- 



326 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

ury is heavily taxed, those who smoke, chew, or snuff, aid 
greatly in paying the expenses of our government, our 
tobacco revenue amounting to many million dollars a year. 

The quality of tobacco depends largely upon the soil, 
climate, and method of cultivation. Different soils pro- 
duce different tobaccoes, and some tobaccoes will grow 
better in certain localities than in others. There is a re- 
gion in western Cuba from which come the finest cigars ; 
and the tobaccoes of Sumatra and of Connecticut are espe- 
cially valued for their thin, silky leaves, from which cigar 
wrappers are made. Other localities produce the tobacco 
which is used inside the wrappers ; and some are espe- 
cially noted for their fine smoking tobaccoes, cigarette 
tobaccoes, and tobaccoes for chewing and for snuffing. 

The tobacco plant grows from three to five feet in height, 
and often much taller. Its leaves have some resemblance 
to cabbage leaves ; but they are longer and smoother and 
of a dark green color. The plants are grown from the 
seeds, and when one looks at them he would naturally 
think that the seeds must be large. They are, on the con- 
trary, about the smallest of all seeds. The tobacco seed 
is not bigger than the point of a pin, and any of us could, I 
venture to say, hold a hundred thousand of them in one 
hand. A single plant will grow more than half a million 
seeds, or enough to plant about one hundred acres of to- 
bacco. 

In setting out a tobacco plantation, the first thing is to 
make a plant bed in which the seeds can be sprouted. In 
our Southern States this is often done by covering a piece 
of ground with wood and burning the wood, so that all the 
insects, vegetable matter, and other seeds in the ground are 



TOBACCO 327 

cooked out. After this the bed is manured and the to- 
bacco seeds are sown. A wide sheet of very thin cloth is 
now stretched over the bed to hold in the heat and to keep 
out the insects. In a short time the little seeds swell and 
sprout, and the baby plants push their heads through the 
soil. They first look like cabbage plants, and they are 
soon ready to be taken up and set out in the fields. They 
are usually planted in hills at about four thousand plants 
to the acre. This is done in the spring. They are care- 
fully cultivated throughout the summer and are harvested 
in the fall. 

As the tobacco ripens, the leaves become yellow, and the 
tobacco farmers then cut off the stalks close to the earth 
and hang them on sticks stuck in the ground. In some 
places they strip the leaves from the stalks and string them 
on wires. 

After the leaves are gathered, they must be dried and 
cured. In some tobacco regions this is done by hanging 
the leaves in sheds and allowing the air to pass through 
them. In others they are cured in tobacco barns heated 
by flues or pipes, so that the moisture is gradually driven 
out, the barns being kept hot day and night during the 
process. When the leaves are cured, they are tied up in 
bundles and packed into bales for shipment. 

In addition to this, the tobacco must go through various 
other processes in the factories before it can be used. The 
leaves are stripped from the stems which run through 
them and then prepared in different ways to be used 
as cigars, cigarettes, or as tobacco for pipe smoking, as 
chewing tobacco, or as snuff. 

At the present time some of our choice tobaccoes are 



328 



POODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



grown under cover. The plants are set out under great 
tents, acre after acre being covered with cloth to protect 
them from the hot sun and strong winds and to give them 




Our choice tobaccoes are grown under cover. 

the same temperature as in the tropics. There are many 
such tent farms in Connecticut and in Florida, and also 
in the choicest tobacco lands of the Vuelta Abajo region 
of Cuba. 



45. WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 

TO-DAY we shall take a peep into the world's big 
sugar bowl and then visit some of the countries 
which fill it. Sugar is found to some extent in almost 
every plant that is used for food, and most largely in 
sugar cane and in beets. Grape sugar comes from fruit, 



WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 329 

palm sugar from the juice of the palm, maple sugar from 
the sap of the maple tree, and milk sugar from cow's 
milk. The chief commercial sugars are from sugar cane 
and from beets ; and a larger amount of sugar is now 
made from beets than from cane. 

For a long time cane sugar was the only variety known 
to commerce. This originated in southern Asia and was 
made in China several thousand years before it was brought 
into Europe. The early Egyptians and Greeks used honey 
for sweetening", and when sugar was first carried to Europe, 
it was so costly that it was bought only as medicine or as 
a luxury by the very rich. 

It was not until the Crusades that sugar cane was grown 
outside of Asia. It was carried first to northern Africa 
and later on to the Madeiras and the Canaries, which 
islands, for a long time, supplied enough for the European 
market. Then the New World was discovered, and the 
cane was introduced into the West Indies. Its cultivation 
spread to South America, and it is now grown here and 
there throughout the tropical world. 

Beet sugar, which comes from the temperate zones, is 
a much more recent production. Marggraf, a German 
chemist, first discovered it in 1747, and about 1801 a pupil 
of his, named Achard, erected the first beet sugar factory. 
At that time Napoleon Bonaparte was at war with Eng- 
land, and the ports of France were so blockaded that 
the French could not get sugar. Napoleon then decided 
to raise sugar at home, and he offered a prize of one hun- 
dred thousand francs to any one who could make a suc- 
cess of extracting sugar from beets. 

Later, both the French and the German governments 



330 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

paid bounties of so much a pound on all sugar made from 
beets in their respective countries, and in time a great beet 
industry grew up. Other countries did likewise ; and to-day 
beets are grown for sugar not only in Europe, but in many 
parts of the United States. In 1840 only five per cent of 
our sugar came from this source, while more than ninety 
per cent of it came from cane ; but now the greater part 
of it is beet sugar. 

In the meantime the world's sugar production has been 
steadily increasing. In 1840 it amounted to a little more 
than one million tons, whereas it is now about twelve 
millions. Of this about five twelfths comes from cane, 
and seven twelfths from beets. 

The use of sugar in the United States is rapidly increas- 
ing. When our parents were children the people ate only 
about one third as much as they eat at present. We are 
now annually consuming more than twice as much sugar 
as the whole world did in 1840 ; we eat an average of 
seventy-five pounds the year through for each person in 
the United States, or a pound and a half every week. 
Sugar is largely a luxury, and only those nations which 
are well-to-do can eat much of it. We Americans are 
among the richest of the world's peoples. We eat more 
than twice as much sugar as the Germans or the French, 
and several times as much as any other nation of Europe 
except the British, whose per capita consumption is greatly 
increased by the large amount they use in making jellies 
and jams for export. 

Our sugar costs us more than our coffee or tea or any 
other article of food that we buy from abroad. At five cents 
a pound, the seventy-five pounds of sugar which each of us 



WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 331 

annually uses costs three dollars and seventy-five cents ; 
whereas the barrel of flour which we each use in one year 
costs only five or six dollars; so that we pay more than half 
as much for sugar as for bread. Moreover, we raise our 
own wheat; whereas, the most of our sugar is imported, 
and we often pay out in one year, to other nations, as 
much as one hundred million dollars for it. 

Now let us take a flying trip southward to the land where 
the sugar cane grows. The greater part of the sugar cane 
raised in the United States comes from Louisiana, and the 
country for miles about the low moist delta of the Mis- 
sissippi River is covered with sugar plantations. We. also 
get a great deal of sugar cane in Porto Rico and in the 
Philippine Islands; and, in the Hawaiian Islands, we 
have some of the largest, best, and most profitable sugar 
estates of the world. The sugar lands of Hawaii lie 
along the coast and on the lower slopes of the moun- 
tains. They are mostly owned by companies with large 
capital and are worked by thousands of natives or Asiatics 
under white overseers and managers. Most of the hard 
labor is done by Japanese and Chinese men and women, 
who have little villages on the estates, where they live much 
as they do in their homes on the other side of the Pacific. 

Many of these plantations are irrigated, and on some 
the water is brought from the mountains, through wooden 
troughs many miles long. On others it is pumped great 
distances, and the expense of getting it to all parts of the 
plantations is enormous. The larger establishments have 
railroads which carry the cane to the mills and steam 
plows to cultivate the soil. 

How beautiful it is ! We ride on the cars through walls 



332 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



of bright green stalks which grow upward to a height of 
ten or twelve feet, looking from the car windows like a 
solid mass of green. The stalks remind us of those of 
Indian corn, save that they are much taller and have many 
more leaves than the cornstalks. The canes grow more 
closely together, and the long stalks bend this way and 




Planting sugar cane in the Hawaiian Islands. 



that, so that it is almost impossible to make one's way 
through the rows. 

At one place we watch them planting the cane. The 
land has been plowed, and great furrows, seven feet apart, 
have been run from one side of the field to the other. 
Then stalks of fresh sugar cane, trimmed and topped, are 
laid horizontally, three abreast in the rows, the pieces over- 
lapping each other so that each furrow has, as it were, three 



WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 



333 



long pipes of cane running from one end of it to the other. 
Each piece of cane has joints like a cornstalk, and at each 
joint there is a little eye, much like that of a potato. The 
soil is thrown over the furrows to cover the cane, and after 
a short time each of these little eyes bursts out into a sprout, 
which makes its way up through the ground, looking just 
like Indian corn when it first comes through the soil. 

The cane grows rapidly. It is plowed, and the weeds are 
kept out. By August the plants are taller than a man, and 




West Indians cutting sugar cane. 

they continue to grow until the middle of October, when 
they are ready to be cut for sugar. After they have been 
cut new canes will sprout up from the stumps and give a 
second or a third crop ; while in some countries, such as 
Cuba, the stalks will sprout again and again, yielding 
sugar for fifteen or even more years. 



334 



FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



As we ride onward through the plantation, we can see 
the smoke rising from the great sugar mills, scattered here 
and there over the landscape ; and we now and then pass an 
estate where they are loading the cane upon the cars which 
take it to the mills. There are scores of men and women 
at work. Each has a long knife like a corncutter in his 
hand, and this flashes in the sunlight, as he chops his way- 
through the green wall. The cane falls, stalk by stalk, as 
the workers move onward. The men seem to know just 
how many strokes to use, so that not a motion is wasted. 
They cut the cane close to the ground, for the most juice 
is found near the bottom of the stalk ; and strip off the 
tops and the leaves, from which very little sugar can be 
made. The cut stalks are thrown into piles, or windrows, 




A sugar train going to the mill. 



where they are gathered up by those carts which are com- 
ing in now, and are taken to the cars. This plantation has 
many miles of railroad upon it, and the little engines puff 
and blow, as they pull the heavy cane to the mills. 

Our next experience is in the great sugar mills them- 



WHERE THE SUGAR CANE CROWS 



335 



selves. We have ridden in on a train load of cane and 
have watched the men throw it off upon a moving belt, or 
roadway, which carries it to the top of the great building 
and drops it down upon the heavy iron rollers which squeeze 
the juice out. These rollers are so arranged that the pres- 
sure between them is enormous. Each is as big around as 
a hogshead and very much longer. They have teeth like 




Interior of a crushing mill. 



an enormous file, which catch the cane and crush it, while 
the weight makes the juice flow out in a stream. The 
crushed cane goes from one series of rollers to another, and 
at the end it is as dry'as a bone. Indeed, it is so dry that 
it forms excellent fuel. It is carried by a moving belt 
from the rollers and dropped into the furnaces. Here, 
as fuel, it makes the steam which is to squeeze the juice 
from the stalks yet to come. 

We now go around under the rollers and examine the 



336 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

juice. It is pouring down from the squeezed stalks and 
flowing off in a trough about a foot wide. It has bubbles 
on top and looks sloppy. It reminds one of dishwater and 
is so sweet that the taste sickens us. And still it is out of 
this dirty water that the pure white sugar must come. The 
dirt and all the impurities will, however, be taken out ; and 
it will be as clear as crystal before it is boiled down into 
sugar. 

The water is first bleached by running it. into large iron 
tanks through which flow streams of sulphur gas. This 
process makes it bubble ; and a yellow foam which rises to 
the top is skimmed off. Lime is next put into the tank 
to settle the dirt. After several other processes, the juice, 
which has been skimmed again and again, is ready for 
boiling. This is done in huge copper vats heated by coils 
of steam pipes. The liquid flows from one vat to another, 
growing clearer and clearer and thicker and thicker, until 
it finally becomes a dense mass of sugar crystals mixed 
with molasses. It looks now, for all the world, like brown 
mush. 

The next process is to get the sugar out of the molasses. 
For this purpose cylindrical metal vessels are used, which 
have walls of gauze so finely made that the molasses will 
go through the meshes, but the sugar crystals will remain 
inside. In each vessel there is a shaft which is moved 
round by machinery at the rate of a thousand or more 
revolutions a minute. This throws the sirup against the 
walls and forces it through the meshes. At first the walls 
look brown ; but as the shaft continues to turn, more and 
more of the sirup flies out, and they grow paler and paler, 
until nothing but sugar is left. The walls now look as 



WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 337 

though they were covered with snow ; but they are really 
coated with the purest white sugar, as we can see 
when the shaft stops moving and the sugar is scraped off, 
to be carried away and packed up for the market. In 
many mills the molasses which is thus thrown out is boiled 
again and again to make second and third rate sugars. 

Such molasses is not like the sirup sold for table use. 
This is made from the fine juice of the cane. The refuse 
molasses is so cheap that it does not pay to put it in bar- 
rels, and it is often carried to the markets in tank cars and 
sold in bulk for cattle food and for use in certain manufac- 
tures. 

The principal sugar cane countries of the world are Cuba 
and Java, each yielding a million or so tons of sugar every 
year. After them come Hawaii, Louisiana, Brazil, Peru, 
several of the West Indies, Mauritius, Queensland, Argen- 
tine, and the Philippines. The product from the several 
countries varies according to the seasons, but, as a rule, 
Cuba produces far more cane sugar than any other part 
of the world. Sugar cane is now being grown in nearly 
every province of Cuba, and about half the land cultivated 
is devoted to that crop. 

In many of these countries the methods of raising cane 
and of extracting the juice are much more rude than those 
we have seen. A large part of our Philippine sugar is 
ground by buffaloes or in water mills, and the product 
goes to the market in a raw or brown state, so that it must 
then be refined and turned into white sugar before it can be 
sold. Much of the Cuban product is sold as raw sugar, 
and this is also the case in others of the great sugar cane 
lands. 

FOODS — 22 



338 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



46. BEET SUGAR, MAPLE SUGAR, AND 
HONEY 

WE have already learned that in some years the 
United States pays out more money for sugar than 
for any other import. In 1905 the sum thus spent was 
almost one hundred million dollars, or more than one dol- 
lar for every man, woman, and child in our country. Is it 
not a pity that we do not raise this sugar at home and 
thereby keep this vast sum in our own pockets ? 

As long as sugar was produced from cane only, such a 
thing was impossible. Cane must have a rich moist soil 
and a warm climate. It thrives best in the tropics and 
sub-tropics, and we have only a small area in our Southern 
States where it can be profitably grown. There are some 
sugar cane plantations in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the 
Philippines ; but they are far away, and their whole prod- 
uct could not begin to satisfy Uncle Sam's sweet tooth. 
It is different with sugar that is made from beets. This 
vegetable grows best in the North Temperate Zone; and 
our country has such vast areas in which it would thrive 
that many people believe we shall, at some future time, 
produce all the sugar we use. There is a belt of beet 
sugar land about two hundred miles wide which extends 
from Delaware to Massachusetts, and runs irregularly 
across the United States, taking in lower New England 
and parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, 
and North and South Dakota, and extends westward 
almost to the Rocky Mountains. At that point the belt 



BEET SUGAR, MAPLE SUGAR, AND HONEY 339 

drops and sweeps over a great part of Colorado, New 
Mexico, and Arizona ; after which it widens and moves 
northward, including all of California and the most of 
Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Sugar 
beets can be grown elsewhere on our continent ; but in 
this belt they produce so abundantly that, if the plants 
were set out over even a small part of it, we might be ex- 
porting sugar, rather than importing it. 

We are already producing several hundred million 
pounds of beet sugar every year, and we have great fac- 
tories where the juice of the beets is made into sugar. 
There are large tracts in Colorado, Michigan, California, 
Utah, Nebraska, and Wisconsin which are annually planted 
in sugar beets ; and our beet farms are rapidly increasing 
in number and in size in many other parts of the belt. 

There is no difference in the taste of beet sugar and of 
cane sugar; one is every bit as sweet and as good as 
the other. The juice of each plant contains similar crys- 
tals, and they are reduced to sugar in much the same 
way. Of the twelve million tons of sugar now sold in the 
world's markets, about seven millions come from beets and 
five millions from cane. These beets are grown in lands 
which formerly imported cane sugar, and most abundantly 
in Germany, Russia, Austria, France, Belgium, and Hol- 
land. Germany produces more sugar than any other 
country, and its sugar is made altogether from beets. 

The sugar beet is not unlike the common beet of our 
gardens. It is usually white, and the best varieties contain 
a great deal of juice, from which sugar is made. In rais- 
ing beets, the ground must first be deeply plowed and well 
harrowed, and then laid off in rows about eighteen inches 



34Q 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



apart. The beets are planted from the seed, and some 
farmers have drills which drop several rows at one time. 




Sugar beets. 



When the plants come up, they are thinned out so that 
they stand six or eight inches apart in the rows. They are 
well cultivated and are kept free from weeds, and within 
about five months after planting are ready to be made into 
sugar. Each beet should then be about eighteen inches 
long, four or five inches thick at the top, and should weigh 
a pound and a half. If the beets are of a good quality, 
they should contain about fifteen per cent of sugar, so that 
seven or eight good-sized ones would yield one pound. 
Good land will often produce twelve tons of beets to the 
acre, and these, when run through the mill, should yield 
almost two tons of sugar. 



BEET SUGAR, MAPLE SUGAR, AND HONEY 



341 



In preparing the beets for the mill, they are dug up and 
the leaves are cut off. They are then carried by little 










Preparing sugar beets for the mill. 

canals into washing machines, where, by revolving brushes, 
every particle of soil and dirt is removed. After this they 
go on into the slicers, to be cut into V-shaped pieces about 
the length and thickness of a slate pencil, called cossettes. 
The cossettes are dropped into the large iron tanks of the 
diffusion batteries, which are so arranged that the beets 
move about through them from one tank to the other. 
Each tank is filled with warm water, and the machinery is 
so constructed that as the cossettes pass through it, a part 
of the sugar in them goes out into the water. More and 
more is extracted in each tank and at the end of the pro- 
cess almost all the sugar has gone into the water, which is 
now a dirty liquid, almost as black as ink. The refuse or 
pulp is carried off by machinery into vats outside, where it 
is used for feeding stock. 



342 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

The inky liquid contains all the beet juice, and, like that 
of the cane, it must be purified before being boiled down 
to sugar. It is first run into great tanks, kept hot by steam 
pipes. Lime is put in to precipitate the dirt, carbonic acid 
is introduced, and by various processes the water is made 
as clear as crystal. It is now ready for boiling. This is 
done in great tanks filled with steam pipes. As the liquid 
passes from one tank to the other, it grows thicker and 
thicker, turning first to a sirup and then to a mixture of 
sugar and molasses, like that we saw in our sugar cane mill. 
The molasses is removed just as in making cane sugar, and 
at the end we have the sweet white grains we use on our 
tables. 

There is another sugar made in the northern part of the 
United States from the boiled-down sap of the maple tree. 
The amount of this sugar is not large, in comparison with 
that made from either cane or beets, being all together about 
twenty-five million pounds a year. More of this is pro- 
duced in Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania than any- 
where else. Ohio makes some maple molasses, but it does 
not compare with those states in the production of sugar. 

Our cane and beet sugars are harvested in the fall ; the 
maple sugar season is in the early spring, when the sap be- 
gins to flow. At this time the sugar farmers bore holes in 
the trees, not far from the ground, and drive little spouts 
into them. In a short while the clear white sugar water 
flows out, drop by drop, and is caught in little buckets 
that are hung on the spouts. When the buckets are filled, 
which is perhaps once or twice a day, they are carried to 
the sugar-house, and the contents is put in large kettles or 
vats to be boiled. 



BEET SUGAR, MAPLE SUGAR, AND HONEY 



343 



As the boiling goes on, the water grows thicker and 
thicker. It turns first to a light yellow, then darker ; then 




Gathering sap in a maple sugar camp in Vermont. 



it becomes a molasses, and finally, a thick sirup. It is now 
poured off into molds and left to harden into sugar. The 
molasses for table use is taken from the fire at an earlier 
period during the boiling and is put up in jugs or in 
bottles to be shipped to the markets. 

Maple sugar making is often done while the snow is 
yet deep on the ground ; and at such times the sugar water 
may be carried to the house in buckets, by men or boys 
upon snowshoes, or in great tubs or barrels, on sleds 
drawn by horses. 

In addition to our sugars from the juices of cane, beets, 



344 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



and trees, we have myriads of honeybees, which rob the 
flowers for our tables. We eat more than sixty million 
pounds of honey a year ; and we have several million peo- 
ple who keep bees and sell honey and wax. The most of 
our honey comes from the North Central States, although 
more or less of it is made in every part of the Union. 
Texas produces the most ; and then come California, New 
York, Missouri, and Illinois, each of which yields several 
million pounds per annum. 

Honey varies in quality and in flavor, according to the 
plants from which it is taken. That from buckwheat, for 
instance, is dark and strong, and is not so much relished 
as is the clear white honey that comes from sweet clover. 

In gathering honey, the bee puts the sweet substance 
extracted from the flowers into a little bag it has inside 




». *► •» •■ « » 



%* % 




Beehives in California. 



its body. The nectar changes somewhat on the way to 
the hive. It also changes inside the hive ; so that the 



salt 345 

honey we eat is not exactly the same as that the bees suck 
from the flowers. The wax, or comb, in which the honey 
is stored, is made by the bees from the honey they eat ; 
and it is said that eighteen or twenty pounds of honey are 
required to make one pound of fine white comb. For 
this reason many bee keepers take the full combs from 
the hive and put them into machines which whirl them 
about, throwing all the pure honey out of the cells. The 
combs can then be again placed in the hive ; and, if the 
season is good, the bees will rapidly refill them. 

Honey is sold in our markets, both in the comb and 
strained. The best way to buy it is in the comb ; for 
strained or extracted honey is sometimes adulterated with 
cane sugar or with glucose. 

47. SALT 

ALL the foods we have so far examined belong to 
either the vegetable or the animal kingdom. We have 
one food which belongs to the mineral kingdom. This is 
salt, which is found in sea water and salt springs and in 
great rocky deposits, down under the ground. Salt is so 
necessary to man that it early became an article of com- 
merce. It formed the basis of the prosperity of Venice, 
whose people evaporated it from the waters about the 
marshy islands upon which their city is built. It is men- 
tioned many times in the Bible, and it was used by the 
Egyptians,- Greeks, and Romans. The poet Homer re- 
ferred to it in describing the repasts of his heroes, and 
the soldiers of old Rome considered it an important part 



346 FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

of their rations. Indeed, the word "salary" comes from 
salt, and to-day when we speak of a boy or man as good 
for nothing we say he is not worth his salt. 

Almost every nation has some superstition or other 
connected with this article. The Hungarian peasants 
sprinkle it on the doorsteps of a new house to keep out 
evil spirits, and the Austrians say that a few grains of salt 
in the pan will keep the witches from souring the milk. 
The Greeks gave a present of salt to the gods at each 
meal ; and the Romans considered spilling salt very un- 
lucky. It is a Norwegian saying that the man who spills 
salt will have to shed as many tears as will dissolve the 
amount he thus wastes ; and the Russian peasants believe 
that if one gives salt to his neighbor, he will soon quarrel 
with him. 

Salt is so common with us that we can hardly realize its 
value. It is different in savage countries, where it is 
hard to get. There are many parts of Africa where it 
is used as money, as it is also in Tibet and in other out- 
of-the-way parts of Asia. In some African countries the 
children like salt better than sugar, and in Abyssinia men 
carry about little sticks of rock salt and suck them, as 
we do candy. An Abyssinian man, upon meeting a 
friend, usually offers him a few licks from his salt stick, 
just as the American offers a cigar, or, as in the past, a 
pinch from his snuffbox. 

There are mines of salt rock in the Sahara Desert, some 
distance above Timbuktu, where the salt is taken out in 
blocks and carried on camels to the river Niger, to be sent 
to all parts of the Sudan ; and in certain other parts of 
Africa where almost no salt exists, it is said that the butter- 



SALT 347 

flies and insects will pass by molasses and sugar and light 
on anything of a saline nature. 

The salt of the world now comes from three sources : 
from the oceans and salt lakes, from mines, and from 
brine springs. For a long time almost the whole product 
was made by evaporating the waters of the seas, and this 
is done to a large extent in many countries to-day. The 
oceans contain a vast deal of salt. It is estimated that 
there is about a half ounce of salt in every pound of sea 
water ; and so much in all the oceans that if it could all be 
extracted and spread over the United States proper, it 
would cover every bit of the country, mountains, valleys, 
and plains to a depth of more than two miles, and still 
leave enough to form a salt bed about a mile deep upon 
Samoa, Hawaii, Porto Rico, the Philippines, and Alaska. 

Sea salt is obtained chiefly in those parts of the world 
where the hot sun quickly evaporates the water, — for in- 
stance, on the island of Madura, in the East Indies, in the 
Turks and Caicos Islands of the West Indies, on some of the 
Chinese coasts, and here and there along the shores of the 
Mediterranean. Sea water is evaporated in large quanti- 
ties on the shores of San Francisco Bay. It is conveyed 
into great reservoirs which are so arranged that as the 
salt water strengthens and decreases in volume, it can be 
drawn off from one reservoir into another. When the 
brine reaches the right density it is let out into basins or 
pools on the bottom of which the salt is deposited in crys- 
tals, and, at the end of the season, the salt is gathered up 
and dried for sale. 

Much salt is secured in the same way from the Great 
Salt Lake. The water is pumped into reservoirs in the 



348 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

spring, and the sun is allowed to beat down upon it all 
summer. As the water evaporates and the brine becomes 




The salt is gathered up and stacked in piles. 

stronger, it is drawn off into smaller reservoirs, more brine 
being put in from time to time during the summer. The 
salt gradually crystallizes on the bottom of the reservoir, 
where at the end of the process it makes a thickness of 
from three to six inches. The remaining brine is then 
drawn off, and the salt is gathered up and stacked in large 
piles on the banks. 

Long before man appeared upon this earth, there were seas 
where the dry land is now. After a time the water evapo- 
rated and left salt there. Then came earthquakes and other 
convulsions of nature which covered these great salt beds 
with layers of earth ; the salt hardened, and in time turned 
to rock salt. Such deposits are found in different parts 
of Europe and the United States. One of the largest is 



salt 349 

at Wieliczka, near Cracow in northern Austria, where they 
have been mining salt for seven or eight hundred years. 
The deposit there is more than twice as deep as the Wash- 
ington Monument is high. It is twenty miles wide and as 
long as the distance from New York to Pittsburg. Miles 
of galleries have been dug through it ; and the miners have 
a village away down there below the surface of the earth. 
They have houses, a school, stores, and even a church, cut 
out of the salt. 

There are other mines at Salzburg, on the borders of 
Germany and Austria, where salt was mined in the days 
of the Romans and where vast quantities are still taken 
out. I once visited these mines, going far down into the 
earth and walking for miles through the tunnels cut out of 
the salt rock. Now and then I came into a chamber 
where there was a little lake walled and roofed by salt 
rock. The salt was melted down by letting in water and 
drawing it off as it turned into brine. After this the brine 
was run through pipes to the outside and evaporated by 
the sun or by artificial heat, in enormous tanks, producing 
the dry salt of commerce. 

Other large salt deposits are found in western Germany, 
Russia, Switzerland, and also in France, Spain, and Great 
Britain. 

In our country we have beds of rock salt in New York, 
Kansas, Louisiana, and Michigan, as well as in Ohio, Vir- 
ginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. There is, in New York, 
far below the surface of the earth, a bed of salt which cov- 
ers several thousand square miles, and another in Kansas, 
eight hundred feet deep, where the body of salt is three 
hundred feet thick. The salt is taken from the Kansas 



350 



FOODS : OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



mines by a shaft which has tunnels running from it out 
through the salt rock, like the streets of a city, with great 




Drilling for blast in a Kansas mine. 

chambers cut out of the rock. Here the salt is blasted 
down by dynamite and is carried on tramways to the shaft. 
After it reaches the surface, it is crushed and screened 
by machinery and then deposited in large bins, from which 
it is loaded on the railroad cars for the markets. 

The most of our table salt, as well as that for other pur- 
poses, is obtained from brine that is pumped out of these 
rock deposits. There are salt springs and salt wells in New 
York and in Michigan which yield thousands of barrels 
every year. In some of the New York salt works the 
brine is evaporated in great vats which have movable 
roofs, so that they can be taken away when the sun shines 
and put back when it rains. The brine is put into the vats 
in the spring or early summer and is exposed until the end 



SALT 



351 



of October. As the hot sun pours down upon it, a thin 
scum forms. This grows thicker and thicker, until it 




Salt works in Syracuse, N.Y. 

finally sinks to the bottom in salty crystals, to be replaced 
by other scum as the summer goes on. In the autumn 
the salt is gathered and prepared for the markets. 

We make all together more than twenty million barrels 
of salt in one year, and more than any other country. 
In 1900 our production was almost three million tons, 
while the United Kingdom produced a little more 
than two millions, Germany, Russia, France, India, and 
Austria ranking next in order. Our chief salt states 
are New York, Michigan, Kansas, Louisiana, Ohio, and 
California. 



352 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 



48. SPICES AND OTHER FLAVORING 
PLANTS 

THERE are certain plants which are used to give an 
agreeable taste or flavor to food. Some, like pepper 
and mustard, are of a biting, pungent nature, and are relished 
with meats and vegetables, cooked in all sorts of ways ; 
others, such as cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs, are ground 
to powder and used in puddings and cakes ; while others, 
such as vanilla, form flavors for ices, creams, and con- 
fections. Our mustard is the ground-up seeds of the 
mustard plant of Europe and America ; ginger is a root 
that grows chiefly in the West Indies ; and pimento, or all- 
spice, comes from the berry of an evergreen tree which 
grows at its best in Jamaica. 

Pepper is the most important of spices. It is used in 
every civilized and semicivilized part of the world, and, 
amongst peoples of hot climates, it seems almost indis- 
pensable to existence. This spice was known to the an- 
cients. The Greeks were using pepper when Alexander 
the Great conquered the then known world, and it was 
so costly in Europe during the Middle Ages that men 
considered a few pounds of it a princely gift. Most of 
the pepper came then, as now, from East India, Ma- 
laysia, and other islands of that part of the world. It 
was one of the most profitable articles of commerce ; and 
it stimulated the desire for a short passage to India, which 
Columbus attempted to find when he discovered the New 
World, and which Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama 
were looking for when they made their way about the 



SPICES AND OTHER FLAVORING PLANTS 353 

Cape of Good Hope and gave us our first knowledge of 
the extent of the African continent. 

It was largely through pepper that the British obtained 
possession of their great Indian Empire. In the days of 
Queen Elizabeth the Dutch controlled most of the trade 
between that part of the world and Europe, and one 
of their chief imports was pepper, which was selling for 
about seventy-five cents a pound. This gave a large profit 
to the Dutch merchants ; but, as they had the whole trade, 
they thought they could get whatever they asked, and they 
doubled the price, making pepper cost about a dollar and 
a half a pound. The English merchants protested. But 
the Dutch would not put down the price ; and so an English 
company was formed in Great Britain to bring pepper and 
other articles from India to England. This was the famous 
East India Company, which gradually drove the Dutch 
out of Hindustan, and finally gave the British government 
possession of that great peninsula. 

Pepper comes from the berries of a climbing plant with 
large glossy green leaves, which grows to the height of 
twenty feet or more, but which, under cultivation, is kept 
down to ten or twelve feet. It is set out from both seeds 
and cuttings and is usually trained upon poles or upon 
small trees. The vines begin to bear in the third year 
after they are planted, and from that time they will each 
produce annually a pound and a half or two pounds of 
pepper, for fifteen or twenty years. Pepper plants must 
have a rich soil and a moist climate, and must be kept 
clean of weeds. They are set out at about twenty-five 
hundred to the acre. 

The berries are of the size of a large pea. They are green 



354 



FOODS: OR HOW TIIF WORLD IS FED 



at first, then red, and when dead ripe, yellow or black. They 
are usually picked when red and spread out in the sun to dry. 
After a while they turn a reddish brown or black, and in 
this shape they form the black pepper of commerce. White 



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Gathering pepper in Sumatra. 



pepper is the seed of the ripe berries, the skin and pulp 
being removed by rubbing and washing. A great part of 
the pepper is carried from the various islands adjacent to 
Singapore, and thence shipped to London and to other 
markets. 

Nutmegs and cloves require much the same climate as 
pepper, and most of them come from this same part of the 
world. The chief nutmeg island is Amboina, which lies east 
of the Celebes Islands, and not far west of New Guinea. 
The nutmeg is the fruit of a tree that resembles our pear 



SPICKS AND OTHER FLAVORING PLANTS 



355 



tree. It has a bright yellow blossom, and the nutmegs, 
as they hang upon it, are about the size of an apricot ; 
they have the color of peaches and are shaped somewhat 
like pears. 

Each fruit has a thick pulp which splits open, as it ripens, 
showing a kernel surrounded by a network of crimson mace 
within. The kernel is the nutmeg of commerce, and the 
mace is also a spice. In 
preparing the fruit for the 
market, the pulpy outside 
is thrown away, and the 
nuts are dried slowly in 
ovens. After this the 
mace and nutmegs are 
packed up separately for 
export. 

Nutmeg trees come 
from the seeds of the 
ripe fruit. They are set 
out in orchards and are 
carefully cultivated. They begin to bear fruit at about 
ten years of age and continue to produce several pounds 
every year for a long time. They are grown also in the 
West Indies and in Brazil. 

Cloves are the dried blossoms of a beautiful evergreen 
tree which grows to a height of thirty or forty feet. The 
blossoms are red when they are picked, but they turn black 
or brown through smoking over a slow wood fire. This 
dries them and fits them for the market. They are then 
packed up in bales or in boxes and shipped all over the 
world, to be used in pickles and in other relishes. Zanzibar 









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Nutmegs. 



356 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

produces four fifths of all the cloves used by man, its 
exports amounting to millions of pounds every year. 

Clove trees are set out in orchards and are carefully cul- 
tivated. They begin to blossom about six years after 
planting, and continue to yield for a great many years. 
A good tree should produce annually about six pounds. 

Cinnamon is the dried bark of a tree which originally 
came from Ceylon, but which is now grown in Brazil, 
Egypt, Java, the West Indies, and in the Philippines. The 
cinnamon tree reaches a height of thirty feet, and its 
trunk is often a foot or more thick. The cultivated trees 
are trimmed so that each has four or five stems, which, in 
about two years, grow to the height of eight or ten feet. 
At this time each stem is about two inches thick at the 
bottom and is ready for harvest. It is first stripped of 
the leaves and twigs, which are dried and sold as cinnamon 
chips, and then of the bark, which is carefully scraped and 
dried. As the bark dries, it curls up into rolls, or quills, 
the smaller rolls being fitted into the larger ones while 
drying. The bark is tied up in bundles for shipment. It 
is sold in the quills, and also in a powder for cakes, pud- 
dings, and pickles, and as an oil for medicines. 

Most boys and girls like gingerbread, and a fresh crisp 
gingersnap is not bad, I can assure you. The spice used 
to make these cakes comes from a plant which grows wild 
in many tropical countries, and is largely cultivated in 
parts of Asia, Africa, South America, and the West Indies. 
One of the best places for it is Jamaica, which furnishes 
a great part of the world's product. 

The part of the plant from which the spice is made is 
the rhizome, which is a stem that grows under the ground 



SPICES AM) OTHER FLAVORING PLANTS 



357 



and looks like a root. Ginger is planted by setting out 
pieces of this root-like stem in the spring. Each sprouts 
and throws out more rhizomes during the summer, while 
a plant, at the same time, grows up to the height of three 
feet or more, and then dies down and withers. When 
the plant is dead its rhizomes are full-grown and are 
ready for ginger. They are then dug up, cleaned, and 
scalded with boiling water. After this they are spread out 
in the sun to dry, when 
they are ready for sale. 
An extract from them is 
used for medicine and in 
ginger beer, and they 
are eaten also as candy 
and in puddings and 
pickles. 

Vanilla, which we use 
for flavoring cakes and 
confectionery, comes from 
the pod, or bean, of a 
vine which grows wild in 
the hot regions of eastern 
Mexico and in parts of 
South America, and which 
is now cultivated there 
and also in the West In- 
dies and in other tropical 

islands. The vine is of a light green color, with a smooth 
waxy bark. It has narrow green leaves and a long fleshy 
fruitlike pod, from which the extract is made. 

In Mexico vanilla plants are set out from shoots about 




Vanilla blossoms. 



358 FOODS: OR HOW THE WORLD IS FED 

a yard long, a portion of the shoot being under the ground. 
They are given a rich soil and are usually planted at 
the roots of small trees, up which they climb as they grow. 
After this the ground is kept free from weeds, and the trees 
are sometimes topped, to prevent the plants growing too 
high. At the end of three years the vanilla vines begin to 
yield fragrant little white blossoms, and after the blossoms 
fall, pods spring forth and grow until they are about as 
large as a good-sized banana. They are gathered before 
they are fully ripe and are dried in the sheds and 
"sweated," to develop and fix the aroma. After this the 
pods are shipped to the markets, where they are made into 
the vanilla extract that is sold in our stores. 



INDEX 



Alaska, Purchase of, 163. 

Almonds, 290. 

Appert, Nicholas, 201. 

Apples, 229 ; Care of orchards, 234 ; 
Europe, 231 ; Markets, 236 ; New 
Zealand, 231 ; Packing, 235 ; Pick- 
ing, 235 ; Tasmania, 231 ; Trees, 
how budded, 233 ; United States, 
229,231. 

Appleseed, Johnny, 231. 

Apricots, 243. 

Armadillo, 191. 

Arrowroot, 217. 

Asparagus, 211. 

Bamboo, 220. 
Pananas, 271, 273. 
Barley, 66, 68. 
Bates, Henry W., 193. 
Beans, 208. 
Pear, 145. 
Rcihc Je mer, 1S6. 
Beets, no. 
Berries, 255. 
Betel nuts, 322. 
Betel palm, 221. 
Bison, 139, 143. 
Blackberries, 256. 
Bobolinks, 153. 
Bobwhites, 153. 
Brazil nuts, 294. 
Bread, 12. 
Breadfruit, 287. 
Broom corn, 72. 
Puckwheat, 70. 
Burbank, Luther, 206. 
Butter, 107, 114; Australia, 120; 
Europe, 118; How made, 116; 



New Zealand, 120 ; United States, 
1 14, 116. 

Cabbage, 209. 

Cacao, 317. 

Cantaloupes, 213. 

Caribou, 139. 

Carnauba palm, 221. 

Carrots, 211. 

Castor oil, 2S0. 

Catlin, George, 144. 

Cattle, 73 ; Argentina, 83 ; Australia, 
S3 ; Branding, 77 ; Brazil, 83 ; 
Breeds of, 82 ; Canada, 83 ; Chile, 
83 ; Cold storage, 87 ; Cowboys, 
75 ; Exports, S3 ; How killed, 90; 
How shipped, 82 ; Meat packing, 
85 ; New Zealand, S3 ; Peru, 83 ; 
Ranch, 75, 79 ; Round-up, 76 ; 
Selling, 89 '; Stock yards, 84 ; United 
States, 73, 79, 83. 

Caviar, 189. 

Celery, 212. 

Ceres, 12. 

Cheese, 107, 114; Edam, 122 ; Gouda, 
122 ; Gruyere, 122 ; How made, 
116; Parmesan, 123; Roquefort, 
12 3- 



Cherries, 244. 
Chestnuts, 293. 
Chickens, 12S. 
Chocolate, 317. 
Chuno, 208. 
Cinnamon, 356. 
Citrus fruits, 260. 
Clams, 181, 183. 
Cloves, 355. 
Coca plant, 322. 

359 



360 



INDEX 



Cocoa, 321. 

Cocoanuts, 294. 

Coffee, 297; Java, 306 ; Philippines, 
307 ; Picking, 302 ; Plantation, 
300 ; Porto Rico, 308 ; Product, 
299 ; South America, 300 ; Varie- 
ties, 305 ; Where grown, 299. 

Commerce, 7, II, 215. 

Cooking, History of, 8. 

Copra, 296. 

Cormorants, 185. 

Corn, 44; Africa, 48 ; Amount raised, 
45 ; Asia, 48 ; Australia, 48 ; Can- 
ada, 48 ; Europe, 48 ; Fodder, 54 ; 
Harvest, 49 ; Mexico, 48 ; Seed, 
51 ; South America, 48 ; Sweet 
corn, 55 ; United States, 44, 48. 

Cottonseed oil, 278. 

Crabs, 179, 183. 

Cranberries, 257. 

Currants, 256. 

Daggett, Ezra, 202. 

Date palm, 281, 284. 

Dates, 281 ; How raised, 283 ; Uses 

of, 284 ; Varieties, 284 ; Where 

grown, 281. 
Deer, 140. 
Doum palm, 221. 
Ducks, 126, 130, 134 ; Wild, 150. 
Durian, 288. 
Durra, 71. 

Eggs, 127, 134, 136. 
Elderberries, 257. 
Elephants, 146. 
Elk, 141. 

Eigs, 281, 285. 

Eilberts, 294. 

Fish, 153 ; Baltic Sea, 189 ; Blue- 
fish, 162; Bonito, 183; China, 
184; Cod, 156; Eggs, 156 ; Grand 
Hanks, 157; Halibut, 161; Herring, 
162 ; Japan, 182 ; Mackerel, 161 ; 



North Sea, 189 ; Philippines, 187 ; 
Russia, 189 ; Salmon, 163 ; Sar- 
dines, 162, 183 ; Sea bass, 162 ; 
Shad, 162 ; Sheepshead, 162 ; 
Smelts, 162 ; Sturgeon, 189 ; Tai, 
183 ; Tautogs, 162; United States, 
153, 162. 

Fishermen, 154. 

Flour, 37. 

Frogs, 191, 195. 

Fruit, 225 ; Africa, 226 ; Asia, 227 ; 
Australia, 226 ; Europe, 226 ; 
General view, 225 ; South America, 
227 ; United States, 228 ; Value 
of, 229. 

Geese, 126, 130 ; Wild, 130, 150. 

dinger, 35 6 - 

Gingerbread tree, 221. 

Giraffe, 147. 

Goat's milk, 107. 

Gooseberries, 256. 

Grapes, 248 ; Africa, 248 ; Asia, 248 ; 
Europe, 248; Malaga, 254; Raisins, 
251 ; White Muscat, 252; United 
States, 249. 

Guavas, 287. 

Guinea corn, 71. 

Guinea fowl, 136. 

Hazelnuts, 294. 
Hickory nuts, 293. 
Hippopotamuses, 145. 
Hogs, 92. 
Honey, 344. 
Huckleberries, 257. 

Jackfruit, 288. 
Jack rabbits, 148. 

Kafir corn, 72. 
Kola nuts, 322. 

Lane, Sir Ralph, 85. 
Lemons, 261, 265. 



INDEX 



\6l 



I .ettuce, 210. 
Limes, 267. 
Lizards, 191. 
Lobsters, 178. 

Mangoes, 287. 

Mangosteens, 289. 

Manioc, 21 7. 

Maple sugar, 342. 

Milk, 107; Asia, 125; Ayrshire, 109 ; 
Babcock test, 1 13; Brown Bessie, 
108; Condensed, 117; Cows, 107; 
Cream, m ; Europe, 121 ; Goat, 
107 ; Guernsey, 109 ; Holstein, 
109 ; Jersey, 109 ; Philippines, 125 ; 
Red Polls, 109; Separator, 1 12; 
Sheep, 124 ; Shorthorns, 109 ; 
United States, 108 ; Water buffalo, 

125- 

Millet, 70. 
Molasses, 336. 
Moose, 141. 
Muskmelon, 213. 
Mustard, 352. 
Mutton, 98. 

Nipa palm, 221. 
Nutmegs, 354. 
Nuts, 290. 

Gats, 66, 69. 

Oils, 274 ; Castor, 280 ; Cottonseed, 

278 ; Olive, 277 ; Sunflower seed, 

279. 
( Mives, 274. 
Onions, 210. 
Oranges, 260; How packed, 262; How 

picked, 261 ; Where grown, 261. 
(Ksters, 171, 183; Pishing, 172; 

Packing, 176. 

Papaya, 289. 
Partridges, 153. 

Peaches, 237 ; Care of orchards, 240 ; 
China, 237 ; Georgia orchards, 240 ; 



New England schoolboy's dis- 
covery, 238 ; Varieties, 237 ; 
Where grown, 237. 

Peanuts, 223. 

Pears, 243. 

Peas, 209. 

Pecans, 293. 

Pepper, 352. 

Persimmons, 289. 

Pigeons, 1 36. 

Pimento, 352. 

Pineapples, 267. 

Pistachio nuts, 294. 

Plums, 245. 

Pomegranates, 290. 

Pomelos, 267. 

Popcorn, 55. 

Pork, 92 ; Africa, 93 ; Alaska, 93 ; 
Asia, 93 ; Australia, 93 ; Bacon, 

96 ; Europe, 93 ; Hams, 96 ; Lard, 

97 ; Philippines, 93 ; Product, 93 ; 
Sausage, 97 ; South America, 93 ; 
United States, 92, 94 ; West Indies, 

93- 

Potatoes, 203 ; Andes Mountains, 
207 ; Bolivia, 207 ; Burbank, 
Luther, 206 ; Chuno, 208 ; Irish, 
203 ; Peru, 207 ; Sweet, 208. 

Poultry, 126; China, 133; Java, 
133 ; Philippines, 133 ; Porto Rico, 
132; United States, 127; Prairie 
chickens, 152. 

Prunes, 246. 

Quinces, 244. 
Quinua, 70. 

Rabbits, 147.. 

Radishes, 210, 

Raisins, 251. 

Raspberries, 256. 

Rhinoceroses, 145. 

Rice, 56 ; Asia, 56 ; Burma, 64 ; 

Central America, 57 ; Ceylon, 57 ; 

China, 57, 60; Harvest, 61; Hawaii, 



362 



INDEX 



57 ; India, 56 ; Japan, 57, 60 
Java, 57, 60, 62 ; Madagascar, 57 
Mauritius, 57 ; Mills, 62 ; Philip 
pines, 57 ; South America, 57 
Sumatra, 57 ; United States, 58 
West Indies, 57. 
Rye, 66, 68. 

Sago palm, 221. 

Salt, 345 ; Evaporation, 350 ; Sources 
of, 346. 

Sheep, 99 ; Africa, 101 ; Asia, 101 ; 
Australia, 101 ; Europe, 101 ; Milk, 
124 ; Mutton, how shipped, 105 ; 
New Zealand, 102 ; Shepherds, 101 ; 
South America, 101 ; Stock yards, 
104 ; United States, 99. 

Shrimps, 178, 183. 

Smith, Thomas, 57. 

Snails, 191, 196. 

Sorghum, 72, 

Squirrels, 147, 149. 

Starch, 53. 

Strawberries, 256. 

Sugar, 328 ; Beets, 338, 340 ; Cane, 
329, 331 ; Cultivation, 331 ; Man- 
ufacture, 334 ; Maple, 342 ; Mills, 
334 ; Molasses, 336 ; Where grown, 

337- 339- 
Sunflower seeds, 279. 

Tapioca, 217. 
Taro, 219. 



Tea, 308 ; Brick, 315 ; Ceylon, 311 ; 
China, 309 ; Cultivation, 312 ; Cur- 
ing* S 1 ^ > Importation, 316; India, 
311 ; Japan, 309 ; Java, 311; 
United States, 311 ; Varieties, 315. 

Terrapin, 194. 

Tobacco, 323 ; How cured, 327 ; 
Where grown, 324. 

Tomatoes, 213. 

Turkeys, 126, 130; Wild, 150. 

Turnips, 21 1. 

Turtles, 191 ; Oil, 193. 

Vanilla, 357. 

Vegetables, 197 ; Canned, 201 ; 
Truck farms, 198. 

Walnuts, Black, 292 ; English, 292 ; 
White, 292. 

Water buffalo, 125. 

Watermelon, 213. 

Wheat, 12 ; Africa, 28 ; Asia, 29; 
Australia, 29 ; Canada, 28 ; Eleva- 
tors, 26 ; Europe, 28, 30 ; Hour, 
37 ; Harvesting, 20 ; Kernels, 41 ; 
Mills, 38, 41 ; New Zealand, 29 ; 
Producing states, 14 ; Red River 
Valley, 17; South America, 28; 
Varieties, 15. 

Verba mate, 322. 

Zebra, 147. 



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